Tenant deposit rent check?

[Larry Ott]

I currently self manage my properties. I just have four. I am planning leave town for a couple of months this winter, has anybody had any experience with just giving tenants deposit slips and allowing them to deposit rent payments in my bank account?

[Kyle J.]

@Larry Ott  I use most of the ways mentioned (i.e. Cozy, Venmo, Zelle), including the one you asked about (allowing tenants to deposit rent directly into my bank account).  My goal was to allow tenants to pay their rent any way possible, as long as it took me completely out of the equation, so that I could be on vacation and not have to worry about how to collect the rent (or even deposit it myself).  So far, it's worked perfectly.

To answer your specific question, yes - it is possible to have tenants deposit their rent directly into your bank account.  Now, a word of caution about this.  The subject of your post refers to depositing rent CHECKS, but your post just mentions rent in general.  You should know that, while it's generally fine to deposit checks into someone else's account, some banks prohibit depositing CASH into someone else's account (unless you have a business account).  You can read more about that here: 

https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2017/11/big-banks-ban-cash-deposits-into-others-accounts.html

Lastly, sometimes people will have concerns about giving out their bank account number to their tenants (which you need to do in order for them to deposit into it).  But I always say don't worry about that.  You're not giving them anything that's not printed on every check you write and hand to strangers.   There's really no extra risk by providing it to your tenant, and at least you know who your tenant is (and you've hopefully screened them and made sure they're not a criminal).

Best of luck and enjoy your long trip this winter!