State Specific Question About: GEORGIA (GA)

I would say that policy is an anomaly. First I have ever heard of it.

I use a local credit union. No problems whatsoever.

BB&T will take cash deposits, but cash only. I wanted to let my tenants deposit checks, cash, money orders ... any way they wanna give me the money! No tenants have complained because I haven't implemented anything other than mail the rent to my PO Box. I just really liked the idea I read in Jeffrey's newsletter and bummed to discover it won't work for me because of the bank.

Sandy, I have been doing this for years, and I love it. I print enough deposit slips for the tenants at the beginning of the lease. I ask them to combine all the roommates' checks (cash, etc.) into one deposit and take it to the bank. Checks are payable to me.

Many times the tenants use night deposit. If yours did, too, I don't think the bank would refuse to process the deposit. How would the bank know it wasn't you making the deposit?

Sandy, I think you got a standard answer about CASHING checks. I'd try it myself with a few resident checks.

Ken [NY] - you're absolutely correct ... I have a property manager that deposits checks into my accounts all the time. BUT, she has run into issues and now goes to the same branch all the time and tries to get the same teller. So far, this works.

Brad [IN] - I raised the same issue with the representative I talked with. She told me the reason they have this policy is IF there's a problem with the check I COULD claim the bank should not have accepted the check. Very lame in my opinion, but it is what it is. She told me my tenant might get a teller that lets it through (like the one that lets my property manager make deposits for me).

I can't imagine giving deposit slips to our tenants as I wouldn't want them to have our account number.

Several years ago, I opened an account for the specific purpose of receiving rent payments for 4-5 tenants. I gave each tenant a dozen deposit slips and they routinely deposited their rent in my account.

One time, a tenant was uncertain about a previous rent deposit he'd made to my account and he questioned the teller about it. The teller printed off a copy of my account statement and gave it to the tenant. When I found out about it, I complained to the branch manager and she was apologetic, but I decided to close the account and discontinue that option.

Also, I've also been concerned that a tenant who is in the middle of the rent court process making a partial payment directly into my account. Here in Baltimore, if you accept partial rent from a tenant while we're waiting for the sheriff to put them out, we have to start the rent court process all over again. Normally, I can decide if I want to accept the partial payment, or not. However, if they can directly deposit into my account, they've taken away my option to accept or not.