Rental Property Investor · Austin, TX · Member since 2016 · 40 posts · 17 votes
I purchased a property with existing tenants. Currently, each of them puts their rent in a dropbox. We changed this method to an online system. All of our tenants have signed up except one, who refuses to use the system. (He also pays using money order, which is less than ideal since we have to go to the bank to deposit it).
Is there a way I can legally make the tenant use the online system before his current lease is up, or will I just need to wait it out? Thanks!
You can certainly require a tenant to use the sort of payment system you want. At least, you can in Texas, where the OP is located.
However, it has to be part of the lease terms, and if you inherited the tenant, you're bound by the existing lease. Change it on renewal.
We don't absolutely require electronic payment, but we say our stated rent includes discount for electronic payment. If you want to pay cash, money order or some other crap that requires more work on my bookkeeper's part, it's $50 extra per month. This is a business. If a tenant is making more work for you, it should cost them more.
Yup….allowed payment methods are described in the standard lease used by realtors here in Texas, you can check off authorized payment measures, as Michael says it has to be part of the lease terms.
If we have a paying tenant, we have had great luck using Venmo (or I suppose apple pay would have similar success).