Check or Cash for Return of Security Deposit & "Cash for Keys"

[Valerie Menke]

I bought a property with long term tenants in place and offered them 'cash for keys'. The security deposit they paid 20 years ago was transferred to us during escrow so I was planning on giving them two different checks, one for the 'cash for keys' amount and one for the security deposit. Now the tenant keeps saying she really wants cash because she works a lot and needs to pay the moving company right away. My thinking was that for book keeping it's just more messy to do cash and checks are a better way to record the transaction. I was going to have them sign a security deposit refund letter and type up a different letter for her to sign that she received the cash for keys amount. Is there a good reason not to give her actual cash as long as I get both those documents signed by her? I would have preferred a check bc I really don't want to drive around with that much money in cash but I also want to be reasonable  considering their situation, they agreed to be completely moved out 7 days after we closed escrow which was pretty stressful to them and very nice for us. With a different tenant that could have lead to a lengthy and costly eviction.