My lease is clear: rent is by autodraft. Mail and other delivery services are not acceptable methods of payment.

BECAUSE...

- judge gives deadbeats extra time if they SAY they mailed the rent. Does ANYONE here believe they really mailed ANYTHING?!

- lotsa news stories about undelivered mail. How many stories needed to get LLs to stop relying on USPS to handle their money and business flow? Here’s one more.

Today’s headline:

‘Postal worker made not-so-special delivery in Pennsauken’

(Philadelphia area) Photo shows 12 white mail cartons stacked by the side of the road. Article says the letter carrier quit mid-route and emptied out his truck.

Wonder how many LLs were waiting for a rent check while it sat by the road?

Stay in control.

I find it a relief not to have a stuffed mailbox on the 1st of the month. And while it rarely happened, less chance of ME losing a check from a tenant.

Converted all of my personal units (25) & management units (50+) to electronic payment or directly depositing at the bank. Now my email inbox fills up instead of my post office box.

I can honestly say that losing EVERY rent check for 1 month would be horrible. However, most of my tenants are happy to have auto debit with the rents. If the company doing it screwed me, what could I do? Nothing. I guess it would come down to researching the company that handles it.

I verify that auto debit has been set up just like electric has been transferred to the tenants name before I will let them sign lease. No verification. No lease signing.

As my agent informed me, there is no insurance against a company not delivering your proceeds to you after collecting them. Even if you have some cyber schmyber clause in your business policy. There is currently at least 1 class action suit pending I believe. Several other smaller suits as well. A simple way to eliminate this problem in the future is to eliminate the number of hands on that money between the time it is collected & the time it hits your account in that 3 to 5 day float. If I'm shopping for a new vendor I'm looking for 0 day processing where the money hits my account the next day.

And if you did a little extra work there were ways to get those transactions reversed & re-drafted & mitigate the damages. Which took some hours but my owners came out whole for the most part.

To those who say their residents don't have bank accounts, many really do, they just don't want you knowing it.

SS checks are direct deposit into a bank account.

Factories are direct deposit.

That leaves VERY FEW who cannot get an account.

A local LL has them buy a Bluebird card at Walmart ($4.95 set up, can be reloaded with cash or debit card for free). ALL her rents are automatically drafted from the credit card for a small processing fee. She figures the fee is a cheap worker while she travels the world.

AT LEAST have them deliver the money to your deposit only account at the bank.

PLEASE!! No more meeting folks in dark parking lots to pick up cash!!

BRAD

my lease states they have to get it into Bank account XXXXXX by end of banking on 1st.

If they dont they lose the $50 prepayment rent discount

easy peezy

I had some tenants who moved out in June. They were both only 20 y.o. at move in. I'm not even sure that's millenial anymore, maybe Generation Z?

Anyway, when they paid second month's rent (we did not have electronic payment set up yet, that was set up for third month), instead of receiving in in the mail, I found it left in an envelope on the front doorstep of my personal home, which is just a mile from this rental. I thought it was weird but since they gave me the money I decided not to make an issue of that.

Then they paid electronically the rest of the tenanancy and two years later they wanted to move out. I told them I needed a letter confirming that. So again I found a letter left on my front door.

I started to wonder if these young people even know how to use the US Mail and went online and there it was. Articles about young millenials not knowing where to buy stamps or how to address an envelope. And letting their own snail mail sit unopened.

I agree with the statement, "I want the fewest possible hands interacting with MY money."

To that end, the fewest hands are a payer and a payee for a total of 2 sets of hands. This is why I LOVE my 'take it to my bank' system. Yes, I offer auto-draft as well and let my tenants choose, but it comes down to most of them LIKE paying at the bank.

No third party to take tenant's money and not pass it over to me.

I've also taken Brad's idea of having credit card charge authorization incorporated into my lease. I'm 2 for 2 lease signings with folks filling out the sheet, signing the authorization, and so now I have this as a back up in case money fails to show up as agreed.

Is my system perfect? Nah... Is it better than USPS? I haven't heard "the check is in the mail" for over 7 years. Non-pays are down to almost zero.

J - I agree, some of the younger ones do NOT know how to address an envelope, or fill out a money order. A lot of them send the receipt they should keep as proof of purchase of the Money Order.

Annie you just reminded me, this same group didn't know how to fill out a money order at lease signing. She started to endorse the back instead of signing the front until I stopped her.

J,

Fire the person who gave your residents (strangers) your home address!! Your PERSONAL info! Protect your safety and your family's safety.

And true, how many non-business people actually have stamps and envelopes in their home.

BRAD

Sorry Brad, I'll never fire that person...

J, But please promise me you'll stop telling renters, who tell their druggie friends, who tell their friends where you sleep.

Your residents might be OK but they have a circle of friends and family who you would never approve.

Safety takes work.

In my part of the world, Los Angeles with rent control, landlords can not change their tenant payment method or period of payment. Why? Because some tenants receive Social Security or pension checks in the mail and can't control the date received. Then they must wait for their checks to clear and then purchase a money order payable to a landlord.

So the only thing I can do is after a tenant has proven unreliable in making a timely payment, I request they get an automatic deposit into a checking account from their source of income and then issue me a series of 12 rent check spanning the next year.

So many great responses here - wish I could give you all a thumbs up at the end of your response.

I have not received checks in a long time. Everyone pays through Zelle or Venmo.