Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Methods of paying rent

You could allow the tenant to deposit his rent payment directly to your bank account, either in person or electronically. That way the tenant would not have to mail a check to you. Ask your bank how to do this and minimize the risk of fraud.

Re: Methods of paying rent

The underlying law on this is as follows: The time, place and method of paying rent is a term of the lease or rental contract. If it is written, the writing prevails and can only be changed in the same way any other term can be changed, e.g. by 30-day advance notice if it is a month to month rental, or at the end of the lease period if it's a long-term lease.

If the lease or rental agreement is silent on the place and method of payment, courts would rule that 'past practice' reveals the agreement of the parties and is controlling.

Therefore, if a month-to-month tenant is making the change and has given you proper notice, after the notice period has run, your acceptance of rent would be considered your acceptance of the change.

So, the answer is you don't have to accept the tenant's proposed method of paying rent, because it is a change from past practice, but unless you are careful you may find yourself stuck with it.

You could try direct deposit as Mr. Snitow suggests; the main problem with that arises when you have multiple tenants it may be hard to tell which one paid you. In any event do not allow an unacceptable rental term to be imposed upon you.