All Forum Posts by: Enrique Jevons

Thanks for the heads up.  

It was great meeting everyone in Kirkland last week.  We recently moved from Yakima to Issaquah to open a second PM office.  I look forward to the next Meetup event to continue learning about the area and the potential here.

I just got back from the office finishing up 1099's.  Now we're getting ready to go watch the Seahawks win again.

Marie mentioned that most people open a single deposit account per tenant.  I currently have 623 units, all with security deposits, but I have all of those in one non-interest bearing trust account.  I do not mingle those funds with and other funds.  In the past 6 years I've been audited twice by the WA State Department of Licensing, and both times I passed the audit without any discrepancies.

If I had to set up a new bank account for each tenant, then I would be at the bank daily opening and closing accounts.  Are there landlords out there with over 600 different bank accounts?  That seems unmanageable.

I just heard about a property management company having their tenants fill out a W-9 Form when they lease them up.  This is for the purpose of reporting to the IRS any security deposit refunds of more than $600.

I'll check with my CPA on Monday to see what she says, but it doesn't seem logical to me to report a payment of over $600 to a tenant if that money was simply a refund of their own money.  It's not as if that money is income that should be taxable?  Am I missing something?  How many folks out there are also having tenants fill out IRS W-9 Forms?

When I first started, I contacted my local Landlord Association.  They had all the necessary forms and lots of advice.  They hold monthly meetings, always with a guest speaker, and I've always picked up little bits of knowledge from each meeting.  I'll bet there's a similar organization near you.  

I use an "Earnest Money Receipt Form" to collect and record the security deposit money as soon as I approve a tenant's application and before they sign the lease.  The "Earnest Money" is non-refundable, and only converts to a "Security Deposit" once the tenant signs the lease.  I make the "Security Deposit" fully refundable only when all the terms of the lease are met.

I've been doing the same as Sajju.  Putting deadbolts on top, and only passage doorknobs on the bottom, forcing the tenant to lock the deadbolt with the key from the outside.  

On the couple of occasions that I did have a tenant call to say they were locked out, I've told them to call a locksmith themselves and pay the locksmith directly.  I've told them that if I have to call the locksmith for them, I'll charge them a much higher fee.

At minimum, you need to send a Security Deposit Settlement Form detailing and demanding that the money owed you is paid within 10 days.  After the 10 days have passed, send all the paperwork you have on the former tenant to a collections agency.  The collections agency will keep approximately half of what they collect, but something is better than nothing.

Additionally, you could file a small claims suit in district court before sending it to a collections agency so that you have a judgement showing the amount owed, which can help the collections agency garnish wages if the tenant has a job.  It is possible for you to also garnish wages, but I've found the process to be too time consuming, so I've always just passed it on to a collections agency.