How to collect back rent?

[Amanda Bahil]

Hi all. Any and all advice is appreciated! Quick backstory: Tenants have been in place for almost a year and have always paid reliably, and on time. They did so by sending money orders because I haven't figured out the best way to accept electronic payments to my LLC business account since services like Zelle are for personal accounts only and I'm not really a fan of Venmo or Cash apps. I manage the property myself, and the following info is one for the 'con' column of self property management. Things got a little chaotic in my personal life and I didn't realize I had missed two months of rent. When I spoke to them, they were horrified and had assured me they had sent payments, same way as in the past. With a little investigating on their end, the money orders were hijacked WITHIN the post office (!) and forged to payout to someone else. They of course are looking into recourse to recoup their stolen money. In the mean time, I'm unsure how to go about asking them to pay the 2 months of lost rent. They sent it - which they were able to prove. I didn't realize I hadn't received either payment for two months, so I feel somewhat liable as well. The question is, how do I go about asking for the lost rent? I know this may be a very simple answer to some: they owe rent, so just tell them they have to send it! But, honestly, there's no stipulation for anything like this in the lease, and they're nice people, so I'm just unsure how to go about having this conversation with them. I know on some level they must be thinking they're going to be on the hook for it, but who knows! And I need advice on how to approach this.

As I stated above, any and all advice is welcome!!