All Forum Posts by: Mary Jay

My thought: the majority of business owners know nothing about this requirement. I suspect Trump/Vance will win the election, and this useless law will disappear.

@Nathan Gesner  I concur it is a useless law.  It is supposd to catch money laundering, but it exempts any company with more than 20 employees and grossing more than $5 Million.  Does that mean that money launderer never have more than 5 employees and never make $5 Million.  The law is unnecesary, redundant, and is am addront to small business.  Just as big box stores stayed open during Covid but small businesses were forced to close, this law will impede small business and force some businesses to close permanently.

Yes, I write on the envelope do not forward and tell the post office.

Write your congress person and senator, telling them how difficult/expensive it is for small businesses to comply.  The penalty is $500 a day fine and two years in jail. 

When I am sending the notice to my rental and I know they are not there I send it certified, signature required, no not forward, and the post office returns it back to me for no one signing it and the webpage gives a day to day accounting of the letter's travels.

When I am sending the notice to my rental and I know they are not there I send it certified, signature required, no not forward, and the post office returns it back to me for no one signing it and the webpage gives a day to day accounting of the letter's travels.

Dave thanks for your reply. I am not panicking and have spoken with several attorneys regarding this matter.  Unfortunately in Florida, the attorney was not required to send me the last known address change notice by certified mail. Instead regular mail with the proof of service is all that was required. As a result, if I were to proceed to trial, in all likelihood I would lose and end up having to pay thousands of dollars in attorney's fees and costs. 

While I appreciate some of the comments others have made, they simply do not understand Florida law regarding security deposits and that this particular law firm has found a legal loophole in order to extort money out of landlords all over the state.  I do not see the logic or reasoning in paying an attorney thousands of dollars defending me when in the end, I will probably lose the case and have a judgment against me for significantly more than I can settle for. Again, several experienced attorneys have agreed with my analysis.

I don’t own anything in Arizona, and just looked up the related laws: https://www.azleg.gov/ars/33/01321.htm.

It sounds like you may be familiar with them, as you did what’s expected by the letter of the law. You are looking for a practical advice now to CYA.

You fear you mean need some evidence of your timely and correct actions, and that’s a reasonable concern: I’d take a photo of the envelope to make sure it shows the address and the post office stamp. I’d then write “No longer at this address” in pen on the front of the envelope, and take another pic of the envelope at that point. I’d then deposit the, still sealed, envelope into a USPS mailbox. (You can take a pic with the door open and the envelope about to be put in/even make a video of it - either of this is an overkill, in my opinion. But why limit yourself at this point?) Be sure to save the pics where you won’t forget.

If you’d still want to go above and beyond this: If you have email or cell number for the tenant, write out what was in the letter and attach the pics.

I’m not a lawyer, but think you should be well covered.