Renter Finds A Bigger House Down The Street, But The Landlord Wants Cash Only And Asks Him To Write The Lease
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There’s a big difference between keeping things simple and keeping things so casual that nobody is protected.
One man started wondering about that after his family found a bigger house just down the street from where they already lived.
The landlord seemed nice, and her longtime tenants had nothing bad to say about her, so everything felt pretty comfortable at first.
But then, she asked them to pay the rent and deposit in cash and told him to write the lease himself.
He doesn’t necessarily think she’s trying to pull anything, but he also wants to make sure his family is protected if something ever goes wrong.
Read on to see what you think he should do in this situation.
New landlord wants cash only, and has also asked us to draft lease agreement.
Myself, my wife, and our 6-year-old are currently living in a duplex on a quiet street in CA (renting through a property management company).
Our son plays with the grandkids of an older couple that lives right up the street.
In talking with them, we expressed a desire to move, and they mentioned that the lady who owns their property, and the house next to theirs, is going to be renting out the vacant house next to them and put us in contact with her.
The owner had a few requests.
The owner is a nice older lady, and the house is bigger than our current one, doesn’t require a huge move, and is literally 150 feet away from our current place. So we put in an application, and she approves us. Easy-peasy. We start the move-in process in October.
Today, she asks that we pay rent and deposit in cash only. Furthermore, she asked us to draft the lease agreement rather than her giving it to us.
Obviously, I know there’s a couple of red flags there. But the couple next to us have been at the place she also owns for almost 10 years and have mentioned that she is super chill and they have had no issues with her.
He doesn’t think it’s serious, but would rather be safe than sorry.
I honestly think it’s more of a situation of an old lady not wanting the hassle of dealing with banks, checks, etc. So I’m not particularly concerned about paying in cash in this instance.
However, I also want to protect me and my family as best I can. I don’t think she’s trying to do anything shady necessarily. Otherwise, I don’t think she’d have her new tenants draft up the lease agreement.
I guess my question is… what should we put in the lease agreement that ensures we’re protected, should anything happen? I’m definitely going to want a record kept of when we pay rent, but what other things should we put in there to protect ourselves?
Eek! It’s easy to see why he’s nervous about this.
Let’s see what advice the fine folks over at Reddit had to offer.
This person thinks his neighbors are a good place to start.
According to this reader, he should use a low-cost legal website.
This reader did some research and thinks he’ll be fine.
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If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a person who calls on dozens of whirlygigs to combat the neighbor’s complaints about the fence.
Great point!
This may be completely innocent, but he still needs to protect himself.
If she wants cash, he should get a signed receipt every single time he gives her money.
And since he’s writing the lease, he needs to make sure it clearly covers the rent, deposit, repairs, and anything else that could become a problem later.
Hopefully, she really is just old-school and this isn’t too good to be true.
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