Tenant Vacated - Refunding Tenant Security Depsit: Via Registered mail or Zelle

[Andy S.]

New Jersey law requires that security deposit be refunded to the tenant via check delivered in person or as a certified mail.

Is it ok to instead refund security deposit via say Zelle?

Is this method considered against the law? Thank you for any guidance I can get.

[Tim Delaney]

I don't know New Jersey law, but based on your first sentence in your post it sounds like you need to send the check by certified mail, not Zelle. Any advice you get here you should take with a grain of salt if you already looked up the law yourself. I'm sure some people have used Zelle and it is not an issue. But if the former tenant ever wants to cause an issue you will have been in the wrong. One way this can happen is if there were two tenants on the lease - the check should be made out to both of them. If you use Zelle that is probably only going to one of them, so the other person could claim they never received the deposit.