Landlords and attorneys for landlords contact to get help finding people.
It’s not the missing person search one normally thinks of – unless you are a landlord. Landlords will tell you tenants moving out in the middle of the night is nothing new. It’s been going on for a long time and as diligent as they can be with background checks and employment checks and references, it still happens.
But when tenants vacate over night, they usually leave two things – a mess and a debt. The landlord still has to go through the legal process dictated by the state and local agencies, but they also have to serve notice on the tenant. And that means they have to know where he is.
As investigators, we know that tenants usually don’t go too far and friends and relatives likely know where they are. Using a variety of strategies from phone calls to work visits and interviewing friends and family, our investigators can track down the tenant. In some cases, we go digital and gather data electronically through social media platforms and social engineering.
One case involved a single mother who had lost her job. She was three months behind in her rent and had established a payment schedule with the landlord. One day she was in the unit, the next day she was out – although it was hard to tell because she left just about everything in the apartment – including a dog locked in one of the bathrooms.
It was almost three weeks after she was suspected of fleeing before we got on the case. With no job to touch base with, we started on social media. Sure enough, she was on Twitter and was posting frequently since she had lots of time on her hands. From there we could ascertain her whereabouts and routines. It didn’t take long before surveillance equipment was able to document where she was living.
The landlord was able to serve the appropriate documents and file a claim in small claims court against her. We were even able to determine she was getting married and what her new married name would be and that will help the landlord eventually receive the money she owes him.
We know how to find missing persons. Whether it is for an attorney trying to locate a missing heir, one relative who has been unsuccessful in finding another relative in their own missing person investigation, or someone trying to find a person who was important to them in the past; can find missing people.
-Brenda McGinley, CEO, All in Investigations, All in Investigations
