Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Washington
Lost check cashed without permission
While going to pay my rent, I slipped and fell on ice on the Landlord's pathway and lost my check. The EMS people and a driver looked but never found my check. I spent the next four days in the hospital. I called on the second day, to see if the check was found, and they said no; I told them that I will have a check brought by when I am out of the hospital. They apparently found the check and cashed it anyway. They never let me know they found it, and I went ahead and paid for my dogs boarding cost while I was in the hospital. I intended to transfer money from one account to another to cover their check. But on the day I was released, they submitted the check for payment. Do they have a right to cash the check if I did not submit the check to them and I notified them that I would bring a check by when I got out of the hospital.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Lost check cashed without permission
Your question is a little bit of a landlord-tenant question, and a little bit of a uniform commercial code question (which deals with among other things, handling of negotiable instruments, such as a check).
In order for someone to cash a check, the check must be properly transfered to them. In your case, you literally dropped the check on the landlord's sidewalk. Had you canceled the check, there would be no question that they could not deposit it. Had you notified the landlord in writing, that they should not deposit the check, that would indicate that it was not properly transfered to them.
However, you indicated that since they could not find it, that you would bring another one by. The landlord probably thought they were doing you a favor by saving you the hassle of having to bring another check by when they deposited the original check.
This is perhaps more a technical point than anything else, considering that you did owe the money, and there is no dispute of that fact.
As a practical matter, you are not going to get very far that you think it was unfair of the landlord to cash the check, even though you planned to deliver a subsequent check later. From what you say, the landlord had no idea about your plans for transferring funds, and how you were going to pay for your dog's shelter.
I am sorry that this is probably not the answer you are searching for, but this is the most likely scenario that you face.
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