Partial payment rent or security deposit ?

[Lisa L.]

Hi BP community, hoping everyone is doing well during this pandemic.

My tenant moved in on April 1st. She couldn’t afford the whole security deposit at one time, so we had an agreement in the lease that she’ll pay $200 each month installments for it.

The May rent is late. I contacted her and she paid me the rent but didn’t pay the $200 security deposit installment.

My question is: can I count $200 of the rent as the security deposit? And then she is still owning me $200 rent money?

Because I think security deposit should come first than the rent.

Also I think if she is owning me rent, it’ll be easier to evict her if the eviction becomes legit again.

I know we can’t evict tenants now. I have a feeling that eviction maybe necessary...