Can tenant reverse their rent?

[Faisal Zaman]

Unfortunately one of my tenants defaulted in March'24. She paid rent till February using one of the rent collection platform that I have been using. Last week she recalled the February month rent saying that she didn't authorized the February rent.. Now the platform returned her the rent and asked me for withdrawal of paid rent in February. Based on IL law tenant cannot ask for rent refund.

Question, shouldn't the platform work with the tenant with to void the wrong claim since the platform has lease and all the transaction information that's the payment for February rent? Based on this recent experience, I have lost all the faith on these types of rent collections platforms.. 

Any thoughts how to avoid these types of situation like reverse rental payment?

[John Warren]

@Faisal Zaman we run into this more than you would think. I manage 325 units currently, and there are quite a few scammers out there that use this even to secure an apartment and then never pay. We only accept good funds (money order/cashier's check) for the initial payment, and then we do electronic once the relationship has been established. With that said, this is a one strike and your out thing for me. If someone recalls payment fraudulently through an online software, then we move to certified funds only for rent immediately. We also issue the proper notice (5 day here in Illinois) and follow up through a collection process internally. 

Believe it or not, even the more robust systems out there allow for this, so really no online rental collection system is perfect.