15,001 reasons.

15,000 - Today’s headline: Warren MI. The bug man spotted a mountain of undelivered mail in the home of a letter carrier. She admitted she kept the 15,000 pieces of mail for 48089 since only Sept 2018.

I wonder how many rent checks are buried there. Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb?

If the evictee tells my judge the check’s in the mail he delays eviction 30 days to allow for slow mail.

And the 1 - our long term good res who never misses did not pay. We started the 3 day text. She replied it was sent out Jan 31. We had her get another money order. Her rent is mailed from a support agency.

Her legit envelope arrived Feb 12, postmarked Feb 1. 12 days to go “across town.”

My lease is clear: US Mail and other delivery services are not accepted. Rent amounts are based on autodraft.

Our residents have gotten along fine for years without US Mail.

No rent by mail!

Apparently my local postal office is good at losing mail, especially when mailed from that office. There have been a bunch of mail that has been lost as verified by various family members. Of course now local mail is not sorted at the local post office, it goes to the regional office to be sorted and sent back. We used to have a "local" mail slot in the post office.

I don't do mailed rent. Tenants don't even get an address from me, so there's no where to mail it to!

Pay at the bank. No excuses. The rent is either there, or it isn't. Tellers can't short their drawer or they will get caught and fired the same day. Tenant gets a receipt in hand. Easy cheesy.

But we're switching to ACH too. Too often tellers are forgetting to write the person's name on the deposit slip, so it becomes a guessing game. So far, it hasn't caused any problems, but some day it will. So switching over to TAKING rent vs. hoping they go pay.

We too get the mail delivery emails that LindaJ talks about. Occasionally, they say there's a letter coming that they don't have an image for.

For those thinking you would lose tenants who don't have a bank account there are a few ways I know about, Wal-Mart money orders are affordable way to convert cash to something acceptable at my bank, getting a money order at the bank costs a little more (don't know why that costs more), or send them to a friend who will do a push electorally or better is the ach from someone of their choosing, I am not in the lending industry at all.

Most of my tenants voluntarily choose some sort of direct deposit program. But I accept personal checks by mail. If I haven't received the check, I call the tenant and they can place a stop payment on the check and just hand deliver another one to me to avoid the late fee.

I don't have any marginal tenants. If they pass screening, they can afford the rent and they care about their credit score.

I don’t have anybody on ACH, but, my tenants have always paid using my bank account as the collection point. However they get it in there is fine by me.

I have checking accounts set up at the banks where my tenant banks, and if they don’t have a bank account, I set up an account for me at the closest bank. Had to change a bank once because the closest bank was cutting their hours, closing at four PM. Went to the next closest bank. Holy mackerel! Every human was interacting with customers through video feed, thick bullet proof glass everywhere. If that’s what it takes to bank in the central part of the city, sure let’s me know I do NOT want to walk around with a wad of cash, nor have my tenants do the same.

Now, all of my tenants use Zelle to transfer money to my account. Very convenient for us both, good record keeping, there is no mistaking who it is from. One of my tenants is trying to convince her children’s daycare to start accepting Zelle payments. (For those not familiar with Zelle, it’s a bank account to bank account transfer. Requires a one -time ‘practice’ transfer to make sure everything goes smoothly, make sure the money gets to the correct person. Then, every month after that, tenant can just transfer whilst sitting in their living room. Both tenant and landlord , or sender and receiver get names of who the money was from, who it was sent to, which keeps record-keeping a breeze. )

ACH would also work well, but, for my tenants, it makes them feel empowered to make the choice to send the money, rather than it occurring automatically. In my landlording practice, allowing them that feeling of control works to MY benefit, just as getting willful compliance from a school -child was always more successful in the long-run than forcing a child to comply. Takes more work to get the child to want to comply, but, the differences from then on are incredible. (But, that’s a whole other subject.)

NEWMAN!

You need to look to see if your laws prohibit that too. In NYS I don't believe we can advise "only electronic" payments are accepted. However - it is THEIR responsibility to ensure that it is paid ON TIME.

That part - I wouldn't care about. I too have received rent that the tenant has mailed it out and we didn't receive it for an extra few days. We just said "maybe it's due to the holiday" but someone else in the same area mailed theirs and we received it timely. I think it's the post office and/or letter carrier that just does what they want. Who knows … this is why they are running in the red. No one watches them!

David and Ken,

SSI payments and most local factories are "paperless". The res must have an account for the money to be sent to them. Some factories are using a paycard which is a debit card on a checking account.

The world is shifting. The workers may be young enough to have never written a check in their life but their paycard/debit card is on a checking account in their name.

LindaJ,

Time for a bugman to check the home or YOUR old letter carrier!

As with many things, this varies by location, level of tenant, and so on. Do what WORKS for your area. Don't blindly follow advice to change your business if something else works better for you.

Especially advice based on a single anecdote. Like, seriously -- a case of a mail carrier stealing mail as being a reason to stop using it completely? That's crazy talk. I can find anecdotal cases of online payment places being compromised. I can find cases of ACH payments being put into the wrong account by banks (we've discussed that HERE a couple of times even). So, by that logic, we can't accept online payments or ACH payments either because "this one time" something went wrong with them.

Again, do what works for YOUR business.

- John...

These ‘mail carrier hid undelivered mail’ stories pop up often.

EVERYONE has a story of undelivered or slow slow late mail. Several times we have received half an envelope weeks later in plastic bags because the sorting machines mangled it beyond regonition.

US Postal Service Inspector General website says in 2014 (latest stats posted) 88 milliion pieces of mail were not delivered. Only 3% of those processed were delivered.

Good managememt means eliminate possible problems.

Clarify: Only 3% of those mail items RE-prcessed were delivered. The rest were held 180?? days then destroyed.

John, when we lived lived in other states, we had exceptional mail service. But, perhaps it was just the era. So, you are correct, one needs to do what works in the area where one is renting.

Just as some areas, it’s still considered safe to pick up a wad of cash from the kitchen table for rent. In my area, no way. Not too mention, I would forget sometimes to log it right away, so for me, that digital receipt is a great back up.

It is a good point that each landlord should be evaluating for themselves, making the determination what works with their area, their skill set.

I too sometimes fall into thinking ‘this is the BEST way to do something.’ Period. When, in reality, it’s the best way for ME to do something.

Exactly. On this site lately, I've seen a lot of "THIS is the way to do it! Period!" types of posts (like this one). I simply am reminding people that what is best for some might not be best for all.

Heck, we've got another thread about cell phone usage going on right now where two great LLs (plus some bonus great LLs adding their input too) who are going back and forth about phone calls versus all-digital texting and such. Clearly, BOTH are making it work WELL doing it very differently.

Again, do what works best for you. People need to stop assuming that there is ONE way that is BEST for everyone.

Now, when it comes to handling Service Animals or other LEGAL aspects, then I can see a more hard-nosed approach. Legal tends to be more cut and dry. But, in cases like this, I think it really, really varies by situation. And telling people to ONLY do it one way often does more harm than good.

- John...

John, please make your case. Explain the benefits of USPS mailed rent checks and of voice calls.

Are these the methods preferred by better performing tenants?

If so, what means of advertising is effective to initiate a call?

Should USPS be advertised as a competitive advantage over our digital insistent competition?