Real Big Pickle. . .

[Michael Vilasi]

Looking for any advice. The good, the bad and the ugly. 

I have a family in one of my long term rentals. In early December last year, one of their children had a medical emergency in the house and had to go to the hospital. This was a new phenomenon for them and the child had to stay in the hospital for several days while doing tests and healing. Fast forward to end of the month and they tell me that rent will be late due to the woman not being able to work as much as she otherwise would have because of their hospital time coupled with the hospital bills etc. I showed compassion as I have kids of my own but wanted to make sure rent is a priority for them. They paid partial, about 60% of rent, on the first and I told them to do what they could to get caught up with the following rent on Feb 1st . They did.

Fast forward to now, April 1st. I was doing some collections at my company (not related to real eastate) (trucking), and noticed a company with an extremely old invoice still open. Our team reached out and a little while later they told us that the check was sent to us and has cleared their account. After doing a little digging, it ended up going to my tenants house, which at one time was my residence, and also where I had some mail going to during Covid. We do not do much work with this company and their record showed that address. Even though our invoice says otherwise so the check was sent there.

Here is the kicker. My tenant, who received the company check, addressed to our company, was able to cash/deposit it at their big name bank. When I first found out that it went to their address, I asked them if they had come across any mail in early November addressed to my company. They told me no and usually they return to sender anything they receive that isn't theirs. Today I was going to start a process through my company and the payer's company banks for fraud that would involve an investigation etc. I again asked my tenant if they might have done this on accident before going to police and starting a fraud investigation and then they remembered now that they received a check that they thought was for a return of taxes they were waiting on. 

Looking for advice. First, i'm disgusted the bank just let this get deposited to a personal account without any authorization, signature that matches mine etc. Second, I know the tenant doesn't have excess funds as they are still dealing with the effects of hospitals, drs, etc. Third, I gave them a break on rent and they had an extra $1800.00 that magically appeared in their account.

Interested for some feedback, advice, or just a hug?!? HA don't you love a good tenant story. Hopefully this is one of the stories i'll talk about down the road and have a laugh. 

[Steve K.]

Honestly I don’t see how this is a pickle at all, nevermind a big pickle. If it turns out that the tenant stole your mail and somehow cashed your check, then that’s criminal behavior on multiple levels. You may have a soft spot for them but the feeling is not mutual, they’re playing you. Is the health issue with their kid even a true story? I would have my doubts about anything they’ve told you. Start investigating and if it turns out they’ve lied and cheated you, get them out asap. I hate it when people say this on here but this may be one of the cases where it actually does make sense to say it: consider hiring a PM moving forward because every tenant has a sob story and if you bend over every time you hear one, you might as well be running a charity. When I first started I had a tenant who “came down with throat cancer” and lost her job. Except I knew her boss and found out her boyfriend had just gotten out of prison and got her back on whatever drugs they liked to do together, and she had actually just lost her job and lied about the cancer. I had tried to set her up with free rent that she qualified for through various local charity programs for single mothers and everything but she never even completed the applications then I had to evict her. After that I was done getting involved in tenant’s sob stories. I don’t care to even know why the rent is late, it’s not my problem I just issue the notice to cure or quit and that’s it. I don’t see how this tenant could possibly cash a check made out to somebody else by accident. Frankly you’d have to be gullible to believe that and if they know you’re gullible then they’re probably lying about other things also, and they’ll take advantage of you, considering they seem to be the type of people who cash other people’s checks. Sorry for the “tough love”, but if you don’t immediately investigate them and take appropriate action, you may not be cut out for managing rentals.