All Forum Posts by: Nathan Miller

Hi Kate,

If the lease doesn't have a recourse for breaking it, then there might be little you can do.  Move on, keep your friends, never rent to family/friends again, and fix the lease agreement for the next one.

For the upstairs/downstairs heat differential, that is often easily remedied by turning the central air fan on full time or if it has a circ option, use that.  Every 2-story home on the planet has this issue, it's not unique to yours.

Also, if you can install vents in your bathrooms, that would be a really good idea.  Otherwise you're going to be dealing with mold/mildew issues.  I like installing fans and putting a timer on them so they shutoff in 30/60/90 minutes automatically.  Those switches are super cheap on Amazon or Grovers.

Hi Ian, ACH actually does pull the funds out of the tenant's account.  It sounds like you might be referring more to those bank to bank transfer systems like paypal, venmo, quickpay, etc.  ACH works like this:

1. Tenant provides authorization to landlord, this can be part of the lease setup.
2. Either tenant or landlord setup one-time or recurring payments to be pulled from their checking account.
3. The funds then are pulled (by the landlord, or their property management software) out of the tenant's checking/savings account, and deposited into the landlord's account.

Hi @Gaetano Fasciana - Congratulations on your first property!  There's numerous solutions out there to do automated ACH and most of them can be found on google by just googling "tenant ach". 

You'll run into two flavors.  1) Some solutions are standalone and they do the ACH component only and you then tie those payments into your accounting system like quickbooks, or whatever you are using.   Cozy and probably the one that Mitch recommended are examples of this type of system.  2) Many of the integrated property management software platforms include ACH as part of the package.  When you go with an integrated solution, your incoming ACH payments affect the tenant ledger by posting a credit.  And in the event the ACH bounces, it automatically reversed the ledger entry.  This is a truly automated solution.

Either way you go, ACH is definitely the way to go!  You'll have happier tenants, longer term tenants, and easier accounting with those payments happening automatically.

All my tenants get a receipt emailed to them right from the manager's property management software and/or they login to their portal to get copies if they want them.  No longer need to do paper receipts.

In your case, if your tenants deposit into your account, then your bank account statement is every bit of proof you need.  However, I would caution against letting your tenants know your account # to do deposits.  I'd look into ACH instead - automate everything.

@Chris Martin, @Scott Weaner

The idea of a deposit card is a good one and a lot better than giving your tenant's your bank account number (never do that!).  But we've found that you get a lot happier tenants if you handle the transaction end to end using ACH.  Just like how mortgage and car payments are made, it's easier on most tenants for it to come out automatically on X day of the month.  It also saves them a trip into your bank.

Think about being a tenant each month and having to drive to your landlord's bank and deposit the largest bill they have monthly into their account.  It's a huge emotional decision that has to be re-made every month.  With ACH, it removes that monthly reminder about their biggest bill.  Our client feedback on ACH has been tremendously positive so I'm a huge promoter of it.

Hi @Account Closed - If you have consent from the applicant (online or paper), you can directly order the credit and criminal reports on them and have the results instant.  As a landlord, you don't need to make the tenant jump through the hoops of those online identity verification services in order to get reports either.

It's pretty common for landlords to pay the ACH costs for automated payments, and cheap too considering it's only about 50c on average.  Discounts on first month's rent is also highly common.

@Brant Holloway - ACH for tenants is definitely the way to go these days.  If you are a landlord, there are numerous services that will facilitate that for you for little to no cost.

Pros - longer term renters, less payment processing costs, no late payments

Cons - none

How about in the lease charge an extra $100 per resident, first 1 or 2 are free.  Let them pay for your inconvenience.

Brandt has a good idea in giving him a monetary incentive to move out.  You want them gone immediately.  The cost in flooring damage alone from their animal dictates it.

Although, it sounds like it's resolved now - good job!