Cozy ACH payment reversal

[Jeff Koller]

My tenant got mad after I legitimately deducted $600 from his security deposit for cleaning fee and damaged furniture so he reversed his last months rent on cozy.  I immediately put in a block with my bank to stop the reversal.  What is my best course of action here?  

[Kyle J.]

@Jeff Koller - Like @Anthony Wick said, don’t hire a lawyer for something so simple. If you do, the lawyer is the only one who will end up making any money. This is a simple matter and the reason small claims court was created. 

The thing with going to court though is you have to be able to win AND collect. Sounds like based on what you wrote that you’d win. But only you know if you can collect (depends on the methods allowed in your state and how “collectible” your previous tenant is). 

You also didn’t mention how much this previous tenant owes you, so you’ll also have to decide if it’s worth your time. 

Ultimately, another option you might consider if you decide it’s not worth your time to go to court (or you don’t think you could collect if you won), is to just send the tenant to collections and have the debt reported on their credit report. There are companies (i.e. Rent Recovery Service, AOA Debt Reporting, etc) that you can do this through for a small fee, and you don’t even need a court judgment. Another benefit to doing this is that you’ll be warning other landlords about this bad tenant (at least the ones who bother to screen their tenants).