Rent payment question

[Alyxandria Welch]

Hello everyone,

I just took over a duplex (first property) with tenants already there. They're great tenants from what I can see so far. They have kept the place in immaculate condition. However, I sent them links to set up their cozy account a couple weeks ago and one just today set up her account and only paid her portion of the rent. The other has not set up her account nor paid her portion. I would prefer one single payment. Tips and advice for this situation? Do any of you allow for separate payments per tenant? 

Thanks!

[Matt R.]

There were two people in one house on my previous lease and they both paid through Cozy.  They would each make a payment that would total up to the amount of the rent.

The speech I gave them when we started was, approximately, "I don't care how you split it up.  If one of you pays half and the other pays half, OK.  If one of you pays it all, OK.  If one of you pays $100 and the other pays the rest, OK.  But if the payments haven't all started by the due date, though, the late fee will apply."

They were always on time, so I never had to worry about the late fee.  If you do get into a late fee, I think Cozy just applies it to the whole account for the property, and it's up to the tenants how to pay it.  In other words, Cozy doesn't care either who pays what; they just see the total amount for the property, and if it's not all there by the due date, they add the late fee to the total.

As far as I remember, my tenants always split the payment 50-50.  Sometimes the two payments would start at different times - I think for a while, one of them had it set to automatically pay out of their account on a certain day each month, and the other would wait until payday and then manually approve the payment.  I told them that when I got the email from Cozy that said they had made the payment, I considered that the date and time of the payment.  The tenants don't have any control over how long Cozy sits on the money, so I didn't want to make them responsible for that.  Also, I'm pretty sure Cozy actually pulls the money out of the tenants' bank account(s) before it sends me the "they paid" email.

Cozy always "sits" on the payments for 3 to 5 days or so.  I think, but don't know, that they do some kind of short-term investing or trading with the money for that period, which is how they fund their service.  They offer to speed it up for about $3 per property per month, but I never used that option.  

Do you know if the person who hasn't paid yet has a bank account?  If they don't have one, I don't think they can use Cozy.  If they have a credit card, Cozy charges the tenant the 2.75% credit card fee, which they may be looking to avoid.