Tenant lease expires March 31.I am not renewing his lease. To Refuse rent on Zelle?

Question

5 day notice was given to tenant by processor , on this Saturday. Tenant paid the March rent on Sunday.
I want to refuse rent from April onwards to make him a holdover tenant.. Will I need to notify Tenant, that rent starting April will be refused because the lease ends on March 31, 2023? Since he pays by Zelle, I have two options of not accepting rent. Please tell me which option do you recommend.

1. I can change my Zelle profile information i.e.,my phone number and email address listed in Zelle and used by all tenants to send rent. Then I will notify changed Zelle profile phone number/email address to all other tenants except this tenant. That way he cannot pay while others can.
2. I keep my Zelle information to be the same. If tenant still sends April rent by Zelle despite of telling him that rent will not be accepted starting April, I can refund his future rent money to him by Zelle the same way that he sends rent to me. This option helps me more because I donot have to notify other tenants (about 20 of them.)
I am willing and happy to take any of these two options so that he becomes a holdover tenant and can be evicted.

Zelle has no option to block one particular tenant from paying rent.

Please advise on this.

Thanks

Tim Miller · Answer

First things first. Did you give proper notice (legally) of non-renewal of lease?

2nd. Get rid of Zelle. It's not meant for rental payments. Your issue is just 1 reason.

You stated you have about 20 tenants? You need to start using a service like Apartment.com, RentRedi, Innago or some other service like these. Most of these services allow you to turn off payments from tenant.

John Warren · Answer

@Atul Mohlajee I think you will need more individualized advice here as opposed to the forums for this. The actual process of changing Zelle is known, but you need to be leaning on an attorney when you are refusing rent payments to make sure what you are doing follows the letter of the law.

One idea might be to make the move towards a management software? These are the types of issues that come up more frequently as you grow, and it sounds to me like you may have simply outgrown some of the freebie tools that work so well early on.

Atul Mohlajee · Answer

Thanks everyone.  I gave only 30 day notice although Cook County requires 120 days notice for tenants who have stayed longer than 3 years.  My lawyer states that notice is valid but timing is not.  Tenant has right to stay for another three months as long as he keeps paying rent.After 3 months he becomes a holdover tenant who can be evicted.  He paid the March rent after a 5 day notice and will probably have to give a 5 day notice every month for 3 months.

Chris Schwagerl · Answer

This is a sticky situation that was avoidable.  For next time, communicate much earlier in the process.

Our leases require a 45-day notice of renewal or non-renewal from us or from the tenant.  Around the 60-day period, we put out some feelers to see what they prefer to do.

With the Zelle thing, can you contact Wells Fargo directly to get your questions answered?

Theresa Harris · Answer

Contact him and let him know his lease is not being renewed and you will be coming by April 1 to do the final walk through.  You should have notified him earlier to let him know the lease was not being renewed.

Wendy S. · Answer

@Atul Mohlajee

While I do not have an exact answer for you, here is what I know with Zelle.

You have the option of using your telephone number or your email along with your name.

For me, seeing that my I do not share my personal number with my tenants, my account for collecting rent uses my email which can be turned off at any time or changed.

Paul De Luca · Answer

@Atul Mohlajee

Try this link

Mark F. · Answer

I can not say for certain but I would think if you go into your Zelle account and modify/change/delete the email linked to that account thus the payment can not be successfully sent.

I use BOA and just checked and it found where it can be easily done. I have go to different accounts if its sent to my phone number for personal use and my LLC email address for rent to go to the rental account. I'm not sure what bank you use but hopefully it's as easy of a process as it is with BOA.

Atul Mohlajee · Answer

I was planning renewal but when he said no to a rent increase which was lowest percentage wise and started getting on my nerves, I wanted to get him out and decided on the spur of moment.  He has been a pain all these years and I guess I was done.  However, I will pay for legal fee and headache but will get him out.

Tenant lease expires March 31.I am not renewing his lease. To Refuse rent on Zelle?

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