I own a rental property in KY, which was managed by my younger brother, and rented under a lease to 4 college students. The lease contained Joint and severable liability and states that if the tenets default I can collect in full. The short version is that the tennets one by one left school and vacated without payment shortly after starting the lease. I have spent some time trackign down addresses, and am ready to write a demand letter. I would like to state to them my intent to pursue further action if immediete payment is not received, however I would like to know my options as related to legal action, wage garnishment, tarnishment of credit, turning over to collections agency, and tarnishment of future reference to employer or landlord.

First, have you re-rented the property? Have you made a good faith effort to re-rent the property?

You cannot double dip. Meaning you can't sue the former tenants beyond when you re-rented the property. Plus you have to make a good faith effort to re-rent. You can't just let the property remain vacant thinking you can collect from the previous leaseholders.

That said, you can sue the leaseholders for the unpaid rental up to qwhen you re-rent and for any damages they may have caused over and above the deposit they gave you. I would file suit against them jointly. Since the lease says that they are jointly and severally responsible, you can sue them all and collect from whichever ones have assets you can attach.

You can't do anything until the suit is completed and you are awarded a judgement. Once that happens, you can garnish salary and/or attach bank accounts. You can go after one or more of the defandants depending on which you think you can collect from.

Unless you have an account with a credit reporting bureau, you can't list the debt on their credit reports. But most credit bureaus will pick up a judgement against someone.

You can hire a collection agency or sell the debt to one. But it would be at a big discount.

If you are asked for a reference, you can tell the truth but nothing more.