The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Real Estate and Landlording => Topic started by: Ryan_8099 on July 23, 2014, 09:52:43 PM
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I have my first question that I was unable to figure out myself regarding a rental property. I recently signed new tenants. It is a mother and her son with his girlfriend. The son is a caretaker for his mother (she can not read or write). The tenants are asking for a rental receipt for his mother for $400 (total rent is $485). I would see no problem to this except for the fact that it will come in one check. He collects the money from his mom in cash (from Social Security I assume) and writes a total check to me for the full amount. How do I handle the rental paid receipts? I believe he wants 2 separate receipts, $400 for his mom and $485 for him, but as I can't verify the $400 actually came from his mother - is this legal? Thanks in advance for your help!
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I wouldn't give a receipt for the mom for $400 and the son for $485. It would look like they had paid you $885 every month. You could split it into a $400 receipt and an $85 receipt or one for the total amount. I wonder what kind of game he is playing?
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I made a typo - The total rent is $885.
Do I request that the $400 come in cash (via his mom) instead of a check for the total from him to keep things straight forward? Does this even matter if the receipts equal the total amount paid?
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That makes more sense. Maybe he/she/both receive assistance(or enrollment status) from some source that would eliminate them if either of them lived in a place with $885 rent (for example, they were only allowed to spend certain % of income on rent). I have tenants with household members who receive disability payments and they sometimes request receipts or a copy of the contract that shows the rent amount.
I think I'd be willing to oblige, even if I suspected them of gaming some outside system, so long as the receipts were accurate and matched the total amount paid. Of course it would be silly to issue him one saying he paid $885, and another to show that the mom paid $400. But one for $885 with an itemized breakdown, or two for $400, $485 seems fair enough since it is accurate.
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That makes more sense. Maybe he/she/both receive assistance(or enrollment status) from some source that would eliminate them if either of them lived in a place with $885 rent (for example, they were only allowed to spend certain % of income on rent). I have tenants with household members who receive disability payments and they sometimes request receipts or a copy of the contract that shows the rent amount.
I think I'd be willing to oblige, even if I suspected them of gaming some outside system, so long as the receipts were accurate and matched the total amount paid. Of course it would be silly to issue him one saying he paid $885, and another to show that the mom paid $400. But one for $885 with an itemized breakdown, or two for $400, $485 seems fair enough since it is accurate.
+1.
If the two receipts equal the total amount paid, I think I'd be fine splitting it.
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+1
If you're a real tight wad, can you charge them a $9.95 admin charge for the extra accounting?
kidding. That's more a bigger pockets thing. But say, doing that for 3 properties over 5 years is almost 2k...
Sounds ok to me if receipts equals actual rent received. Keep copies.
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Where I live you need to issue equal for receipts for all adults in the household anyway on the crp forms. MN law states whether or not you receive rent from the adult or even if they are not on the lease if you know they reside in the property they get credit for half the rent. This might not be known to your tennant and I don't know where you reside.