Once upon a time....well 2010 to be exact, we decided to move house. First house sale fell through and with no more buyers evident we were left with little choice to rent out the first home, albeit at a bit of cost to me to cover the mortgage partially. Found a tenant quickly and checked out OK. All good. After 3 months I noticed that no rent had been deposited by the letting agent apart from the first month's. Turns out tenant had done a runner......6 weeks previously! "I thought it was strange you had not been in touch" said agent. "Well it would be a help if you had told me as my crystal ball has packed in again" said I. As you can tell the agents were particularly useless (very well known Sydney agency).

So ended up going to tribunal which found in my favor, but only for about 50% of the total costs (WTF!!) So I'm considerably out of pocket already. I found that he had run off to Perth and even got an address from the agent who had to forward some post. Went through the courts in WA and sent the sheriff after him....only to find he moved two weeks previously. Damn! Spoke to the courts about it, and although they acknowledge he now has an un-served court order against him as well as the NSW tribunal finding.....they will not do anything to track him down. I would think that the courts should have full access to RTA / ATO / Register of Electors...but oh no.....privacy laws blah blah blah.

So engaged a PI (more cost) who tracked down his brother and even had a conversation with the errant over a provided mobile number. He denies all knowledge of the outstanding debt, and he will not provide an address. The PI has checked all legal databases with no luck. I can even see the idiot on Facebook, but he does not put much info up. So essentially I have come to a dead end.

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas how to track someone down like this? I am amazed that the court system here is so protective of the privacy of someone who is obviously on the wrong side of the law. If they don't want to give me the address, fine, just serve the court order on him.

So far the debt is up to $8500 as interest is being applied by the court system....not a massive amount, but still significant enough, and my "loss" in total is a lot more than this, so any recovery is worthwhile. I've been through phone books, google, tried reverse phone number directories, Facebook.......any ideas out there?

Time to move on and put it in the past.

If I find him will I get a reward?

Have you got some very hungry pigs ??

If he's enrolled to vote, the electoral rolls are available for public viewing. You can get on to the Electoral Commission and they should point you in the right direction. You still have to go in and scroll through info yourself though I think, but it's not hard.

If your PI has his mobile number, maybe you could ring him claiming he has won a prize and request his address. Greed is a great motivator to crooks.

If all fails, agree with those who say move on. These things can eat you up and it's just not worth it. You can't get blood out of a stone.

PS: If he has a trade, you could try tracking him down through employers near his last known address. Door knock his neighbours at last known address, as an old mate of course, add him on FB as a gorgeous young thing... lol