Locating Debtors & Their Assets
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This is sometimes the most difficult part and often requires considerable time if you do it yourself, particularly if you are completely inexperienced.
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Get as much information about the debtors as you can from the Court case folder. Their social security number, address, phone number, DOB, employment, and lots more information is usually contained in the folder. Take whatever you can find.
You might yourself already have important information if you did business with them.
If they were your tenants, you should have a rental application, an old credit report, and/or a copy of a rent check. This is another reason to use a detailed application form and to keep detailed records in the first place. We have a page called Recovering Rental Income that has additional discussion about the importance of applications. A good application should include employment, bank, driver license, vehicle registration information. Some of the information may be out of date, but even old information can provide leads to current information. For example, an old employer may know the person's current employer. An old credit report should also contain useful information, maybe even something that doesn't show up in a new one, perhaps because the reporting agency changed its format or a different company was used. Information from a report might be useful if the debtors are still in the area and haven't thought to change bank accounts.
If the debtor is a contractor who did faulty construction work, you should have the canceled check that you wrote and you will know the bank where it was deposited. This might still be handy for doing a bank levy.
If your judgment is against more than one debtor you only have to find one of them to collect your judgment. Suppose that it is against two room-mate ex-tenants or against partners in a handyman business. If you find one of them you can make them pay the whole judgment. Then, its up to that debtor to collect from the other debtors.
Credit Reports
Before pursuing any other sources of information, start with a credit report. Credit reports are without a doubt the best source for finding your debtors and a lot of information about them. And usually information about some assets they may have if those assets are new or were previously financed. Since you are a judgment creditor you can legally obtain a credit report on your debtor. Credit reports are inexpensive, between $8-$20. They will be well worth every penny and may be all you need.
You will get information such as current address, former addresses, current and former employers, bankruptcies, current and previous creditors, social security numbers, and dates of birth. The report is made up of the header, body and footer. Some companies credit reports are better than others so try to get a sample if you can before you do business with that company and a break down of how to read it. They're not hard to read, but some companies use a lot of codes and abbreviations, requiring a legend to tell you what each symbol or abbreviation stands for. Since credit reports are so inexpensive, you can order from more than one company if necessary.
And from that information you should be able to use your wits and the information on this page to find out much more information about them and their assets.
We at RHOL provide credit report services for our Members through a third-party vendor. We also provide information on our site about understanding the reports.
You can use information gleaned from credit report in many ways to locate your debtor. You can use your own imagination here because the possibilities are endless. Calling a past employer is one example. Looking up a former address and then using the Crisscross or Haines directory to call neighbors and talk to them would be another. But be careful because old neighbors could still be friends. You don't want to alert the debtor that your looking for them.
Some states (particularly community property states) allow you to pull a credit report on a spouse and go after their assets and even garnish their wages if they were married before the judgment. Check your state laws first before doing this, since not all states allow it and, even if they do, there may be restrictions and/or regulations specific to the issue.
Now that you have a credit report on your debtor you can use this information in many different ways. First in finding your debtor. Always begin with the cheapest, easiest, fastest way to locate them. Check the phone book to see if their address is the same as the credit report and call to verify if they are still employed at the place listed on the credit report. You will have to use a little creativity here so as not to alert the debtor. Also, many employers will not provide any employee information over the phone and confirming that a person is even an employee might require written permission of the employee. Finding out information by pretending to be someone else is called pretext. It can sometimes be illegal so check the laws before you do it.
If they aren't in the phone book, but you know where they are employed locally, you may be able follow them home from work to get their new address. Be prepared for some old fashioned detective work if necessary. The same holds true for locating their bank. Wait outside their work on payday, whether Fridays, the 15th, or the last business day of the month, and follow them to see if they stop by the bank and at what time. The time will be important later when we discuss bank levies because this is most likely when they deposit their paycheck and their account has the largest balance. All this cloak and dagger work may not be necessary because their banking information may very well be on the credit report.
Before the new federal laws against pretext you could use the new electronic banking, if you had their account number and social security number, and access their account electronically and find out exactly how much is in their account and at what time of the week their account is the biggest so you would know when to hit it with a bank levy. Sometimes the last four numbers of a persons account is their pin number, but not always. Sometimes they use the numbers in their address or date of birth. But that's illegal now. If you can find out when the account is at its biggest that's when you would want to have the levy officer serve on it. They will usually follow requests like that if you let them know a week or so in advance. We'll cover this in later discussions about levying a bank account and seizing property.
Directories
There are a number of special directories that can be helpful. Two are the Crisscross Directories and the Haines Directory. These are good if you have either an address or a phone number. You can cross reference each. Your local library will have both of these directories. The Haines Directory is especially useful because it lists by street number. Thus, after you get your debtors' new address or a previous address, you can call neighbors and try to find out where they moved to or any other information you need. Sometimes neighbors are also relatives, so look for the same last names. Be careful though if you don't want your debtor to know that you are about to come after their assets or even that you are looking for them. You can use a little creativity here. For example, they were your old high school friend or Army buddy?
The Internet
For locating your debtor and their assets, the Internet is a great resource of information and the information continues to expand daily. Some sites are still free, some provide some free info but require fees for advanced help, and others charge for everything. The following are some links that you might check.
Also, there are a number of special sites that provide "yellow page" and "white page" listings, including both most of the Web portals as well as independent sites. They're free, so try the following:
Finally, many of the phone companies, including AT&T, provide various search capabilities on their Web sites.
We have a more complete reference of Internet resources on our page titled Finding People, Places, Things & Skips.
If you don't own a computer, use a friend's or one of those available for public use at your local library.
The Post Office
If has been less than a year since they've moved you can address a letter to the last known address and mark it "Do not forward-Address correction requested." You'll get the letter back with the new address. The post office will sometimes provide the service even for moves that occurred much longer ago than the one year provided by regulation.
Marriage Records
This one can be particularly good because it may list not only the debtors names and addresses, but the witnesses as well. You can call these witnesses and ask how to get in contact with your debtor. Also many times the address they put down is the parents address so you can contact them also. Of course, you should again use a little creativity if you contact them.
Divorce Court
This is also public record. This one is great because assets are listed. Also, if it was a messy divorce one ex-spouse might be willing to help find the other, particularly if the divorce was relatively recent and memories are still strong.
Department of Motor Vehicles
Although most states have a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), some states handle the same functions through the Secretary of State's office or other agency. Although ease of availability varies from state to state, in many state, for a nominal fee (typically about $5) you can get the debtors' address as well as what makes and models of vehicles they own and other information. This is certainly helpful for placing liens against cars, trucks, motor cycles, snowmobiles, boats, trailers, and/or whatever items are registered by the particular state's DMV or other agency that handles this task.
Links to the various state agencies responsible for vehicle registrations are provided below.
Fishing and Hunting Licenses
Many people has been found by contacting the agency that issues these licenses. Agency names vary from state to state, but all will have pages on the state Web site. Try, for example, department of natural resources or department of fish and game. Tax Assessor's Property Tax Rolls
If the debtors own real property, business or residential, it will be listed here. It might be difficult to find if vesting is in a partnership or corporate name, or, as many are these days, held by a Living Trust. However, you may have the necessary information from other sources. Professional Licenses
If your debtor works in a field that requires a state license, you should definitely check the licensing agency. Most agencies require that business addresses be public record. Different state require licensing for different professions and trades. Examples of state licensed fields include medical-related (doctors, dentists, veterinarians, radiology technicians, etc.), real estate. law, architectural, accounting, construction contracting (plumbers, electricians, etc.).
The state of Michigan, for example, licenses not only real estate agents, but also requires a state license to announce events at boxing or wrestling matches.
Check the the state Web site or the local phone book state pages for information about licensees. For real estate licensees, you can find links to the regulating agencies in the various states on our Real Estate License Regulatory Agencies page of our Invest Web.
For various other regulatory agencies or other information for a particular state start with the state's official Web site. Links to the sites of all states are listed below.
Military Personnel
If your debtor is military, try these links
Interstate Commerce Commission
If you debtor is a truck driver, this agency will have his record. Check the ICC's Web site or look in your phone book for the branch nearest you.
Boat or Aircraft Registration
If you know or suspect that your debtor owns a boat, check with the agency that licenses boats in the state of interest (which may or may not be the same as the one that licenses autos). If the debtor owns an airplane, check the the FAA Web site. Even if the debtor doesn't own a plane, if you think the debtor is a pilot, you can check the site for Airman Certificate information.
Sometimes a boat or airplane owner may change his address property with one governmental agency, but not another. So, since both aircraft and boats are usually taxed, by either or both state and local authorities, you might also obtain useful information from those taxing authorities.
Other Sources
The last one above is noteworthy because it is an extensive public record site. Click on "public records." Also click on hotlinks for some good links to reverse address/phone directories. Also click on "on the record" for some more good links.
Help Is Available
As mentioned earlier, it is sometimes useful or even necessary to have professional help in tracking down a hiding debtor. RHOL can search and monitor Consumer Credit Files to provide members with the information needed to locate former tenants and colfalect debts. These supplemental services are found on the Tracing & Tracking page of our Credit Web.
There are numerous other companies that specialize in locating your debtor and their assets. Many will do a "no hit - no fee" transaction. That means that if they can't find anything for you there is no fee or a very small charge. They do deserve something for their time in trying. You can hire them for as much or as little information as you want or your budget allows.
We are providing a list of hyperlinks to various companies in addition to RHOL in case you would rather have someone else do the information gathering or you don't have time for it. If your budget allows it you may consider having someone do the dirty work. They may be able to find more information and find it faster than can. Some can provide services for many other countries. The companies are listed alphabetically and, as we have not personally used any of the listed companies, we do not recommend one over the other. Neither do we do warrant their work in any way.
Remember that you will still save hundreds or thousands (depending on the amount of your judgment) of dollars than having a judgment collector do it for you and they would be doing the same thing.
If your judgment is for $2,000.00 and it costs you $100.00 to collect the judgment yourself, isn't that better than giving a judgment collector $1,000.00 (they usually charge 50%)? You save $900.00! It's actually $1,000.00 since you get your $100.00 back from the debtor. And even better if you own a business and have to do this on a regular basis. It is safe to say that you will save many thousands of dollars over time. And, no one will be more motivated then you the creditor because no one cares more about getting your money than you do. Tracer and Information Specialists
See also RHOL's "Collecting Judgments" e-Course.
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