Rent Receipts

What is to be done in a given situation, where a landlord is reluctant to issue rent receipts to a tenant, who is adamant each time a rental cheque is given to the landlord, he / she is issued a receipt for payment received. No doubt, a landlord is justified in being chary about issuing a rental receipt, given the fact he / she is on the move i.e. travelling a lot of the time, as well, there is every likelihood that an occasional cheque may bounce in his / her absence.

The truth is many states require landlords to issue a receipt for rent received from their tenants. It is meant for protecting those tenants who pay in their rent in cash, leaving them no other means of proving the rent was, indeed, paid up, in the event a landlord decides to challenge them on that count. Despite, the fact that these days tenants have begun to pay rental charges via cheques and even credit cards, landlords are still required to issue receipts, if asked. In case, the rental cheque bounces, issuing a receipt to the tenant will in no way hinder your attempts to get the tenant to pay.

Perhaps, the reason why a tenant may be insistent about receiving a rent receipt is, because there are a number of states that give tenants a ‘renters tax credit’, which they can claim when filing their income taxes, and tenants paying in cash require a rent receipt to back their claim for a tax deduction.