Big problem tenant is threatening....again

[Michaela G.]

I have a huge problem tenant.....I'm not going to go into all of the details. 

Anyway, there are 3 ways for tenants to pay the rent: Give it to me in person (because I used to live half a block from the creative community, where I own 10 units), pay via zelle or go to any Wells Fargo and deposit into the rent account. 

Tenant seemed to have closed her own bank account it seems, since she used to use Zelle. Now she's asking me for my address to mail the rent. I told her that she can submit to any Wells Fargo. She then wrote that she's already left town and there's a money order in her unit. I responded that I would not enter her unit (as she has previously set me up with the code enforcement officer and then tried to extort me, saying that she just wants to see me in front of a judge, unless I can offer her some incentive to not go to court). So, I won't enter her unit. She wrote back:"Thanks for your help, b*tch!" It's illegal to not give the address to a tenant. 

Is that so? If I were to open a P.O.Box today, just for her, would that be enough? I really don't want her to mail the rent (plus it doesn't make sense that there's supposedly a money order in her unit and she's out of town and wants to mail another money order to me?" I know she has to be back in town for her trial, which starts Dec 2nd, so, there's no reason for her to do this, unless she's trying to set me up in some way. 

Sorry for the longwinded back story: Do I need to offer her my physical address and can she insist on mailing rent, when she can deposit at any Wells Fargo? I don't want rent mailed to me, because it's too easy for tenant to say that they mailed, but I didn't receive . I also don't want to open a P.O.Box. unless I have to. 

[Nicole A.]

Sorry to hear you're having troubles again. So, I would not say it's "illegal" to not have a mailing address, but then again I don't know your local laws. I still would be surprised. However, it would probably be pretty standard to have a mailing address. I would not recommend your house address, so yeah, get a PO Box or something cheap.

But here's what will happen next. She will claim she mailed the rent. It won't arrive at all or it will arrive late. You won't be able to read the postmarked date easily if at all. So you again will be the evil landlord charging late fees or filing for rent court.

So just do not engage her whenever possible. She has agreed to pay via Zelle or Wells Fargo, she needs to just do that. Your responses to her can be charging late fees and/or rent court. But there is no need to get into debates with her. It's a waste of your time and you're just getting abused with the threats and name-calling.