Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Check 'Kiting'

For a definition of check kiting, go to http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-check-kiting.htm and you will see that the practice called check kiting is not exactly what your tenant is doing (as far as I can tell). Your tenant is, apparently, just writing uncovered checks and letting them bounce. Check kiting is writing uncovered checks and preventing them from bouncing by covering them with other bad checks drawn on a different bank so that none (hopefully) bounces. Another name for this is "playing the float."

It's important to understand the difference, because the landlord's remedies are different. If the tenant is kiting checks, even though the practice is illegal, there is no harm to the landlord, who probably won't even know about it.

If however the tenant writes a bad check and allows it to bounce by having insufficient funds in his account when the check is presented for payment, this triggers the landlord's right to demand that future payments be made in cash or equivalent under Civil Code section 1947.3.

Anyone who has been the victim of a bad check intentionally given has additional rights as a victim of crime. Contact the District Attorney's office in your county for particulars on how this program is administered locally. The DA's office likely has a booklet on bad-check victims' rights.