Tenant wants to pay cash and get receipt

[Drew Denham]

Pros? Cons?

[Mike H.]

There is absolutely no way I'd be accepting cash for rent. I've done it. But then I tell them no more.

1) I don't want anybody coming to my house.
2) I'm not going to pick up rent either.

I put in my leases that absolutely no rent will be paid or collected in person. It must either be mailed or submitted via my online payment service. No exceptions!

I've had somebody mail me cash once. They were a young couple and I had to let them know thats not a good idea. :-)

I've also had a tenant leave the cash under my door mat. $1,400 in an envelope under my door mat. I could very easily have said it was gone. Why would you do that?

Make them get a money order and mail that. Then there is some recourse if that gets lost. You can get them for a couple of bucks. Or better still, require them to pay it via an online payment service. $2 a transation and you can cover it so its free for them.

I'm moving more and more of my tenants onto the service. They love it. No stamps. No envelopes. No worrying about finding the address. No worrying about the mail delivery being slow. Its instant.

Just say NO to cash. There's really no reason in the world to accept it. But if you do, I'd agree with the other posters, you have to provide a receipt. If it isn't a law in your state, it absolutely should be. Otherwise, you could turn around and file for eviction and they'd have zero proof they paid you. Judge would believe the landlord in a he said she said case.