All Forum Posts by: Lucas Hall

Hi @Justin C.

Posts that recommend Cozy are commonly removed by BP moderators if folks from Cozy chime in. I suppose it's just part of their policies not to support competing tools. I understand that to a degree.  Gotta do what you gotta do. 

But there are a few remaining threads that I see (although they aren't appearing in search anymore):

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/92/topics/198...

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/240...

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/237...

Hi @George P.

Great questions! but really the best place to ask them are to the Cozy support team. You can reach them at [email protected]

But I'll address here for anyone who is interested:

1. You're free to put anything you want on the name lines, it doesn't have to be your personal name. You could put "OnPoint" in the first name and "Rentals" in the last name field, and that's what your tenants will see. Soon, a company field will be present, which will supersede any personal name fields.

2. You can add any checking bank account you want. Business or personal. Cozy doesn't need the EIN nor do we ask for it. The SSN verification is a requirement of federal "Know Your Customer" regulations (my nickname for them).  It's just to make sure that your username/profile is a real person, not a spambot. It has nothing to do with your business. After all, we are processing millions of dollars, and security is a top concern. Once you verify your identity, then you can add any bank account.

I hope that helps.  Here's a related FAQ: https://support.cozy.co/hc/en-us/articles/20411798...

Remember, Cozy has a top-notch support team. Try them first next time.

Cheers!

Hi Kyle D. Cozy can accept online rent payments and track offline payments (section 8, checks, cash, etc) within the same lease. So you can have multiple forms of payment from multiple parties on the same lease and you'll always know what the balance is. As Dawn Anastasi mentioned, the latest improvements have made a lot of folks happy. More to come next month too, but I won't spoil the surprise.

Hi Eli,

What's the reasoning behind withholding the info?  Unless you waived all your veto rights in the management agreement, you should be able to review applicants.  After all, you're the one putting up the asset.  Would you give over $100,000 to someone if all you knew was their name? Absolutely not. Then, why would you do the same for a tenant?

Last time I checked, "Drug user" was not a protected class.  But good luck getting even "clean" renters to submit to that. To a lot of people, even those that don't use drugs, it feels like an invasion of privacy, and they'll just take their business elsewhere.

Hi Matt,

After ten years of landlording, I've learned that it's not necessary for a landlord to collect a SSN for screening, because you can still get full credit reports and background checks through soft inquiry companies (like Cozy, or even every credit bureau provides their own online tool that helps landlords order reports without SSN). There's really no need to collect a SSN on an application.

Further, you don't need a SSN to evict someone.  In fact, most courts don't even ask for it. A SSN is not printed on the judgement record because those are public documents, and if they did, they would be encouraging ID theft. 

However, YOU WILL need a SSN if you try to garnish wages, garnish a tax refund, or send the debt to collections.  For this reason, I always require my tenants to include their SSN when signing the lease (I add a space for the SSN near the signature block). That way, I only have the SSN of actual tenants, rather than everyone who has every applied to my place.  

I keep copies of my leases in PDF, secured on my computer, behind multiple passwords, and paper copies in a safe, behind a locked door. 

I hope that helps. 

Today, Cozy released a major update to payments and lease management. Incorporating feedback from our customer advisory board and working closely with the customer experience team here at Cozy, we set out to update the experience of Cozy for landlords to make it more flexible to collect payments and to greatly improve control over all details of the lease term.

Here's a quick, two-minute walk-through of the new payments ledger:

View the New Cozy Payments Walk-Through on Vimeo

We're excited to finally release these updates to our customers and, as always, we welcome your comments and feedback. Here is what you'll find in the latest release of Cozy for landlords:

Flexible Payment Dates

Rent can now be paid on any day of the month, instead of just the first five days. Tenants may want to adjust their rent payment date to be sure they're always on time, regardless of bank holidays.

One-time Charges and Payments

Landlords or property managers can now request one-time payments through Cozy, for things like utility bills or late fees. Tenants can also submit one-time payments directly to their landlords.

Each Tenant Pays Separately

In the past, payments didn't process until all tenants were set up and ready to make a payment. Going forward, each tenant's payment will process as soon as it's ready, so landlords will receive one payment per tenant rather than per unit.

Ability to Update Lease Terms in Cozy

Landlords can now change their rent due date, update lease dates, and end their leases all from within their account.

Over the the next two months, we'll be continuing to release the updated landlord experience with a better property creation experience and improved applicant management features. Before the year is out, we'll expand payment options to include credit and debit cards. Stay tuned for a preview of those upcoming features.

If you haven't signed up to collect rent — and now utilities, late fees, and much more — with Cozy, for free, there's never been a better time to start.

This article originally appeared on 

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Better Free Online Rent Payments, Now with Late Fees & Utility Payments

Early next week we’re rolling out improvements to payments in Cozy. As we mentioned in our June blog post, we’ve been hard at work updating the underlying foundation of our payments platform and based on research and feedback from customers participating in our advisory board, we’re rolling out a host of new features for Cozy Payments.

Landlords and property managers have been awaiting these updates for quite some time. Thank you for your patience!

Features and improvements that will be available next week:

• Landlords can now update all details of their leases, as well as terminate them.
• Support for multiple deposit accounts.
• Redesigned lease summary view to clearly view lease details.

One-time Charges

As a landlord or property manager, you can now request a payment at any time during the lease term by creating a single-time charge on the ledger. This makes managing charges to your tenant simple and easy. If you need to request payment for a repair or a utility bill, you can now do that. Payments, charges and balances will be visible in the redesigned payment ledger.

• Landlords can add a charge to their tenant’s lease.
• Tenants will receive an email notification that a charge has been requested.
• After the payment has been made, the landlord’s ledger will reflect the payment and current balance.

Redesigned Ledger

The redesigned ledger provides a comprehensive view and current snapshot of all transactions that have occurred within a lease term. The addition of one-time payments expands the possibilities that transactions will occur at any time during the lease - these transactions will be captured in the new payments ledger. 

The Cozy ledger will maintain a balance of the financials including rent payments and one-time payments. Landlords and tenants will now see both charges and payments in the new Cozy ledger.

As we move quickly toward the end of 2015, we’ll continue to fine-tune Cozy for Landlords and build all features to be mobile-friendly.

Sign up at Cozy.co

Hi Jd,

Lucas here from Landlordology and Cozy. The weekend + holiday definitely shows things down because banks don't process transactions except on business days. 

I work at, and use Cozy, and I'm seeing the same thing this month as you. For some folks, everything got transferred before close of business on Friday, but for others, the money will show up on the next business day (tuesday). It depends on the speed of the receiving bank too, and when their cut offs are. 

Thanks for using Cozy.  Cheers

Hi Ravi,

I never rent to anyone with an eviction judgement.  Generally, if they actually have an "eviction" judgement, then a PM had to file an unlawful detainer because the tenant stayed in the property after the lease was terminated.  They might have just stayed past their expiration, or they might have refused to pay rent - and then the Judge ruled in favor of the PM. Either way, it shows that the tenant chose to ignore the rules.  That's why I never rent to folks who have an eviction judgement against them.