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Apartment rent paid by automatic withdrawal from our checking account?

Formerly we paid by check at the office or by mail. Now apartment managers have required that rent payments will only be processed with auto withdrawal. Is this ok? I pay other bills electronically, but am a little nervous about this..there is a high rate of staff turnover in the office, and we aren't sure if we can trust them.

Public Comments

1. If you want to give out your checking account number then go ahead I would personally tell them I dont have a checking account so therefore I cant do the Automatic withdrawl. High turnover means something is wrong in that office you dont want your checking account information to get in the hands of one of those pist off employee's
2. I wouldn't do it! There is something very strange about that. Call Consumer Affairs and ask them if it's legal for them to require that. I would just tell them that you don't have an account and don't want to do it that way.
3. Read your lease agreement. It is a binding contract. See if they have any clauses in effect, where they can change the method of payment. There usually is a clause about them notifying you 30 days before any changes they make to anything. My apartment complex obtain new owners, who required that we mail in our payments, we could no longer pay them at the rental office. They notified us of the change in writing.
4. Do you know the reason for the high rate of turnover for the office staff? I don't think that there is too much to worry about with it being a company. Just make sure to get a copy of the paperowork that is required to debit your account.
5. i'm not entirely sure if they can force auto-withdrawal. What you *can* do is have your bank auto-pay them. Most banks have an auto-pay system so you can set it up and set the apartment owners as the beneficiaries of those payments. Then maybe you can provide the bank proof of your auto-pay set-up (but with your account #'s blocked out if necessary). I'm not sure what this would accomplish though as they already have your account number since it's on all of your checks. But at least you wouldn't have to sign any additional pieces of paper at the office that give them explicit instructions to withdraw $$ from your account. Who's to say they won't mess up and set up a wrong dollar amount to withdraw? Sounds a little fishy. To me, it seems like all kinds of abuse can be done here.... let's say they just up and decide to raise your rent... they'll just take it from you with no recourse from you.
6. there is no way they can force you tod o automatic withdrawal. Unless you signed up for it, but then you normally have a right to cancel it. Just tell them no. I highly doubt its in your lease. I would just ignore them. When they call and ask, say I will pay you cash if I want. Its legal tender. Im not signing anything where you can deduct from my bank. Now .... off.
7. That is exactly why the Apts. no longer take cash/checks. They are trying to minimize fraud/theft....
8. If you've paid by check in the past, you can't tell them now that you don't have a checking account as someone else suggested. My mortgage comes out of my checking automatically each month. You just have to be sure that there is enough money in the account on the day you know the rent is coming out. If you don't trust the staff keep a close eye on your bank statement.