erentpayment.com late deposits?
Rental Property Investor · Raleigh, NC · Member since 2015 · 36 posts · 19 votes
Is anyone else experiencing issues with erentpayment.com? I use them for rent collection and they are currently holding my recent rental payments. Allegedly there is an issue with their bank and the bank's required reserves. Its' been seven business days since my tenants made the deposits and erentpayment.com hasn't released those funds to me yet. Usually it only takes a couple of days to receive the ACH deposit. I'm not sure what my recourse is for something like this but I certainly need these funds and I have no idea when they'll be released. Any suggestions?
I still have two 10/5 deposits that haven't cleared. I called them up yesterday and they said the issue was with the bank they use to process the transactions. They are switching banks to one that can safely handle their high volume of transactions, but the current one hasn't released the deposited funds for some reason. Erent has their legal team involved and says they are trying to resolve the situation as soon as possible, but gave no exact date as to when all this mess will be over. I tried calling again this morning but they've stopped taking calls and only respond to emails now.
If it's not resolved by next week, I'm telling all my tenants to deposit rents directly into my business account for now while I look for a new online rent collection. Ill also get MY legal team involved to get my deposits, as companies like this should have reserves and insurance on hand for situations like this. Cozy seems like a good alternative and it's free (haven't read the fine print yet). Rentpayment.com was also on my list of options, but they take a .95% transaction fee which ends up costing more than Erentpayment. Life would be a lot easier if everyone took my money as seriously as I do. For shame!
I just logged onto their site to confirm that I've been paid for all my deposits (I believe I have) and I can't log in. That is troubling. Especially when combined with your concern.
I resolved the login issue, but it does appear that I have some payments from a tenant that have not been processed since the 7th into my account. I did find other threads on BP about the issues that erentpayment is having. Apparently it is some banking issue. I'm extremely concerned as I need this money to make payments for the mortgage. Not acceptable!!
Confirming that we're in the same boat. We've got some seriously late deposits. First time we've ever had issue. While I'm highly concerned, I do think this is an unexpected and unintended problem (as opposed to fraud). If fraud was involved - they could have done this 10 days earlier and it would have been much worse. As it stands now, we've got about 30K outstanding deposits and it has us a bit stressed to say the least.
The fact that they are not answering phones right now is also really not great. Even if they are working hard to resolve the issue - now is not the time to have an automated message saying we're not taking calls.
By EOD today (Tues 10/17, we may have to email blast all our Tenants to tell them to put their payments on hold) ... many start paying shortly for November.
Appreciate if anyone else can update here as new info comes.
I still have two 10/5 deposits that haven't cleared. I called them up yesterday and they said the issue was with the bank they use to process the transactions. They are switching banks to one that can safely handle their high volume of transactions, but the current one hasn't released the deposited funds for some reason. Erent has their legal team involved and says they are trying to resolve the situation as soon as possible, but gave no exact date as to when all this mess will be over. I tried calling again this morning but they've stopped taking calls and only respond to emails now.
If it's not resolved by next week, I'm telling all my tenants to deposit rents directly into my business account for now while I look for a new online rent collection. Ill also get MY legal team involved to get my deposits, as companies like this should have reserves and insurance on hand for situations like this. Cozy seems like a good alternative and it's free (haven't read the fine print yet). Rentpayment.com was also on my list of options, but they take a .95% transaction fee which ends up costing more than Erentpayment. Life would be a lot easier if everyone took my money as seriously as I do. For shame!
I contacted them via email yesterday and got a response that they're having trouble with accounts being "locked" because of some issue with a reserve account with their bank. It seems like they're scrambling trying to resolve it and are changing banks. If you email their customer service, you'll probably receive the same form letter response that I got. There was an update email today stating that they expect funds to be released after the new account is set up by Thursday.
I tried copying and pasting the emails, but they pasted in backwards here. I couldn't get it to paste correctly.
I have not heard anything from them today. No phones no email. I am getting concerned now! We have several deposits that show posted on their website but have not made it to our accounts. Tenants have verified that money has been pulled from their accounts. Has anyone else heard anything.
I too am having problems with them. Just checked online to see if any deposits had been made from transactions as far back as 10/4 and still showing they are pending. Tried to call them and talk to someone but their voice mail said only responding to emails.
I also checked my bank account to see if maybe a deposit might have been made even though it shows pending, but no luck.
I have been with them for about 5 years now and they have been slow sometimes about the deposit say maybe taking up to 7 business days but nothing like what is going on now. Needless to say I'm a little concerned at this point.
I just checked my rental accounts and see that the October rents were processed on 10/5 and the transaction fees were processed on 10/13. My bank confirms they received the October funds on 10/5. Now I'm curious why my payments were processed while others have apparently not been processed.
UPDATE: 2017-10-18 @ 8:30 EDT
I don't know when this was posted on eRentPayment website - the date says Oct 13 but their updates have not had an accurate time stamp. Here's what it says:
We regret to inform you that our payment processor, eCheckit, has informed us that it expects to file for bankruptcy protection shortly. We are told that it suffered losses due to a fraud and that its processor, Check Commerce, has held over $4 million of it's funds and will not release the funds to the intended recipients at this time. Please note that eRentPayment had nothing to due with the fraud eCheckit suffered. It was apparently caused by another client of eCheckit.
The transactions potentially affected were submitted after approximately 7:31:00 PM (Pacific time) on 10/03/2017 through approximately 7:01:33 PM (Pacific time) on 10/12/2017. Any transactions submitted after this time period should not be affected as they are being processed through eRentPayment’s new direct bank relationship. Similarly, any future transactions should not be affected as they will be run through the new direct processing relationship.
We do not know if or when Check Commerce will send the pending transactions to the recipients. Accordingly, you should consider your options including having the tenant contact his or her bank to request the transaction be reversed. Specifically, the tenant may initiate a return for an ”Incomplete Transaction.” We understand that the return code for this is “R10” and the bank will require a written statement from the tenant. Also, the tenant will have a limited time period to request the return from his bank, usually within 60 days from the date of the transaction.
We are contacting the Attorney General of Arizona, NACHA, and reviewing legal action against the relevant parties.
When we have more information, we will let you know.
Published: October 13 at 7:33 PM
If I can - I'll post a link in the next post ... don't want to try now in case this site prevents posting URLs.
Here's the link to that previous post:
https://support.erentpayment.com/news/64/delayed-october-payments.aspx
There has been a Facebook group formed “erentpayment discussion group” that is adding victims of this crime. We are discussing ways to legally get involved. We encourage all victims to join.
The timing is a little strange ... if this was deliberate, they picked a lousy time to do it, as most tenant's rent has already been paid and cleared. But their communication has been absolutely "flippant". They have exhibited no acknowledgement that this is a "life changing event" for some folks. I stand to have about 2K tied up. I'll get through that ok but many won't. I plan to cut all ties with them ONLY because of the poor communication regarding this issue and the placing the responsibility on us (i.e. having your tenants do an incomplete transaction, etc.). If I were in their shoes I would be apologizing every other word. I'm guessing this is the end of eRentPayment.com. I can't imagine anyone staying with them after the way they handled this.
I'm wondering if simply "voiding" the transactions that are pending processing will work in refunding the amount or reversing the amount back to the tenant? I've tried it just now with a small amount ($20 late fee) so we'll see how that pans out. Otherwise for my tenants I want to have a fully completed letter that only needs their signature that they can send to their bank to get the charge reversed.
Going forward, this kills my trust of online solutions completely. I've heard some feedback about a couple of others but I honestly am considering investing in my own solution, through my own bank. Or insisting that tenants pay in person at our bank (we don't accept checks or cash, only direct deposit).
Love to hear some "brainstorming" !
Does anyone have any updates? The vast majority of my rents are paid on the 1st so that wasnt an issue. I have 4 tenants who pay between the 4th - 7th. Everyone keeps posting that they had tenants scheduled for payment on the 5th and it was processed/deposited into their accounts shortly afterwards. The payment on a unit scheduled for the 4th was processed on the 12th and still hasnt show up in my account.
I have 2 more payments coming in the next 2 days and am wondering if I should delete them. The last email correspondence from erentpayment was on Tuesday and it said it would update everyone again by the end of the day. NOTHING SINCE. They did change the atrocious voicemail to something a little more professional.
What's the consensus?
Also, not to detract from the main topic, what other online payment companies do people recommend? I have been on ERP for awhile but am obviously changing to something else. Has anyone used rentpayment.com?
Sorry for the triple post as this is also my first three posts.... Here is the update I finally received from erentpayment. Doesn't look good for anyone who has payments that were processed and not deposited into their accounts.
Here is the latest update regarding the deposits and information on reversing the funds:
We regret to inform you that our payment processor, eCheckit, has informed us that it expects to file for bankruptcy protection shortly. We are told that it suffered losses due to a fraud and that its processor, Check Commerce, has held over $4 million of its funds and will not release the funds to the intended recipients at this time. Please note that eRentPayment had nothing to do with the fraud eCheckit suffered. It was apparently caused by another client of eCheckit.
The transactions potentially affected were submitted after approximately 7:31:00 PM (Pacific time) on 10/03/2017 through approximately 7:01:33 PM (Pacific time) on 10/12/2017. Any transactions submitted after this time period should not be affected as they are being processed through eRentPayment’s new direct bank relationship. Similarly, any future transactions should not be affected as they will be run through the new direct processing relationship.
We do not know if or when Check Commerce will send the pending transactions to the recipients. Accordingly, you should consider your options including having the tenant contact his or her bank to request the transaction be reversed. Specifically, the tenant may initiate a return for an ”Incomplete Transaction.” We understand that the return code for this is “R10” and the bank will require a written statement from the tenant. Also, the tenant will have a limited time period to request the return from his bank, usually within 60 days from the date of the transaction.
Here is more information for the tenant:
1. The tenant needs to contact his/her bank
2. Ask to dispute the transaction
3. Ask the bank to return the payment as R10- Incomplete transaction
We are contacting the Attorney General of Arizona, NACHA, and reviewing legal action against the relevant parties.
When we have more information, we will let you know at https://support.erentpayment.com/news/root.aspx
Charli
eRentPayment
Following for further updates
ERENTPAYMENT BLOG UPDATE ON TENANT R10 BANK CLAIMS .... here is an example letter:
Dear [BANK REPRESENTATIVE NAME], My name is [Tenant NAME], and I used eRentPayment to pay [LANDLORD NAME] in the amount of [LAST PAYMENT AMOUNT] on October [DATE OF PAYMENT], 2017. I have learned that my last payment was not completed due to a problem with eRentPayment’s third-party processor. I am writing to file a dispute for this charge for reason: R10 as an “Incomplete Transaction.” I am informed that NACHA has confirmed that R10 is the appropriate reason code in such circumstances and that the ODFI has agreed to accept the R10s for the dispute in question. Please refer to Ballot 4-12 for additional information on an Incomplete Transaction (http://www.neach.org/uploads/resources/doc/nacha_ballot_4_2012.pdf) or as the description for R10 is: “Customer Advises Unauthorized, Improper, Ineligible, or part of an Incomplete Transaction.” I request that my charge be cancelled, and the funds be returned in full to my account. Please confirm. Thank you, [TENANT NAME] -----------------------------------------------END BLOG POST ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------MY FYI ... NACHA is the organization that manages the development, administration, and governance of the ACH Network, the backbone for the electronic movement of money and data in the United States and is funded by the financial institutions it governs. (source wikipedia) and you can probably update this letter to mention the NACHA rep overseeing this mess ... Jeanette Fox, Senior director for Risk Investigations and Research at NACHA // jfox@ BIGGER POCKETS WONT LET ME POST EMIAL // direct line for banks to call 703561 BIGGER POCKETS WONT LET ME POST # . CONTACT INFO IN FACEBOOK GROUP TITLED "ERENTPAYMENT DISCUSSION GROUP"
This is from their website and helps explain what is going on. We are having the same issue. https://support.erentpayment.com/news/64/delayed-october-payments.aspx
Has anyone received their Nov rent payments from ERP? I didn't realize there was a problem with my rent collection from ERP until 10/30 when they sent that email communication, so unfortunately, I did not inform to not use ERP for Nov payments.
Also, has anyone seeked legal advise on the matter and know what options are available to us?
Has this been resolved? I have a new tenant that I was planning to sign up with ERP but after reading this thread, I'm not sure that is such a good idea anymore...
There is a FB group called erentpayment discussion group with all the updates and help to get the R10 ACH reversals to work. It's by landlords for landlords, anyone soliciting gets kicked out.
Coming in late to this thread. Long story short: rather than erent, is there a solid online option for rental payment? Erent is hit and miss.