My tenant wants to pay rent through their company: Should this raise a red flag?
"I disagree with the other respondents. If your tenant is an individual, renting in their individual capacity, there is no reason they need your SSN. They will not be sending a 1099 to you. If your tenant is a business, then your property is not a residential property. It is at least a ""corporate housing"", and you would have noticed that the contract was signed by a company representative in the capacity of being a company representative, not an individual person. In that case, that representative would also ask  you to fill a form W9, on which your tax ID should be reported. I would suggest let the tenant figure out their tax avoidance issues without you being involved." The company that's apparently going to pay this rent wants to treat it as a business expense.  They are asking for your SSN because they expect to issue a 1099-MISC. (They probably gave you a Form W-9? It's not mandatory but it's common to request a taxpayer ID on this form.) There are a couple of issues at play here: Maybe you should consider setting up a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) for your business dealings as a landlord and consider providing that instead of your SSN for this type of thing. I am assuming (if this is legitimate) they want it so they can send you a 1099 as they might be obligated to do if they are claiming the rent as a business expense. Also, I'd suggest having the tenant tell their employer to contact you directly. There is no need for the tenant in this situation to also get your SSN/TIN.
"I mean, honestly, what kind of weird insular bubble do you have to live in to take that seriously?   I know a lot of people that work at Microsoft or worked there over the last 15 years, and for much of that time Microsoft's culture was all about ignoring everything else that was happening around them and assuming that they were the only company/ecosystem that mattered, because they ""won"" during the 90s. This should have been a huge red flag to anyone that cared about the future of the company." "You have to realize that you're trying to have your cake and eat it too.  You want to do things ""unofficially"" by not reporting the accident (to insurance companies and/or police), but you want to do it ""officially"" in that you want to have legal recourse if they try to hit you up for more money.  The only way to have it both ways is to trust the other person. From a financial perspective, ultimately you need to decide if the monetary cost of your raised insurance premiums, etc., outweighs the cost of whatever money the other party in the accident will try to squeeze out of you (factoring in the likelihood that they will do so).  You also would need to factor in the likelihood that, rather than trying to scam you, they'll pursue legal action against you. In short, from a purely monetary perspective, if the legitimate cost of repairs is $700 and the cost to you of doing it by the book via insurance is $2000, you should be willing to be scammed for up to $1300, because you'll still come out ahead.  Of course, there are psychological considerations, like whether someone unscrupulous enough to scam you will stop at $1300.  But those numbers are the baseline for whatever outcome calculations you want to do. On the more qualitative side of things, it is possible they're trying to scam you, but also possible they're just trying to hustle you into doing everything quickly without thinking about it.  They may not be trying to gouge you monetarily, they just want to pressure you so they get their money.  I agree with other answerers here that the ideal way would be for them to send you an actual bill after repairs are complete.  However, you could ask them to send you a written copy of the repair shop estimate, along with a written letter in which they state that they will consider payment of that amount to resolve the issue and won't pursue you further.  The legal strength of that is dubious, but at least you have some documentation that you didn't just try to stiff them.  If they won't give you some form of written documentation, I would read that as a red flag, bite the bullet, and contact your insurance company." first, let me reiterate what everyone else is saying about rental rates having nothing to do with your expenses. you should charge market rates. slightly higher if you want better tenants and slightly lower if you want to avoid prolonged vacancy. you can determine market rates by finding similar properties in your area and seeing what they are asking for rent.  you will need to adjust for location, square footage, number of bathrooms, etc. now that that is out of the way, here is a quick checklist of expenses that you will need to calculate and/or estimate for your specific property in order to decide if you should rent or sell: if you add up all of the above expenses and it's more than the market rates for rent, you should sell.  if the above expenses are below the market rates, then you need to consider if the profit margin is enough to justify the hassle and the risk. "I don't know what country you live in or what the laws and practical circumstances of owning rental property there are. But I own a rental property in the U.S., and I can tell you that there are a lot of headaches that go with it. One: Maintenance. You say you have to pay an annual fee of 2,400 for ""building maintenance"". Does that cover all maintenance to the unit or only the exterior? I mean, here in the U.S. if you own a condo (we call a unit like you describe a ""condo"" -- if you rent it, it's an apartment; if you own it, it's a condo) you typically pay an annual fee that cover maintenance ""from the walls out"", that is, it covers maintenance to the exterior of the building, the parking lot, any common recreational areas like a swimming pool, etc. But it doesn't cover interior maintenance. If there's a problem with interior wiring or plumbing or the carpet needs to be replaced or the place needs painting, that's up to you.  With a rental unit, those expenses can be substantial. On my rental property, sure, most months the maintenance is zero: things don't break every month. But if the furnace needs to be replaced or there's a major plumbing problem, it can cost thousands. And you can get hit with lots of nitnoid expenses. While my place was vacant I turned the water heater down to save on utility expenses. Then a tenant moved in and complained that the water heater didn't work. We sent a plumber out who quickly figured out that she didn't realize she had to turn the knob up. Then of course he had to hang around while the water heated up to make sure that was all it was. It cost me, umm, I think $170 to have someone turn that knob. (But I probably saved over $15 on the gas bill by turning it down for the couple of months the place was empty!) Two: What happens when you get a bad tenant? Here in the U.S., theoretically you only have to give 3 days notice to evict a tenant who damages the property or fails to pay the rent. But in practice, they don't leave. Then you have to go to court to get the police to throw them out. When you contact the court, they will schedule a hearing in a month or two. If your case is clear cut -- like the tenant hasn't paid the rent for two months or more -- you will win easily. Both times I've had to do this the tenant didn't even bother to show up so I won by default. So then you have a piece of paper saying the court orders them to leave. You have to wait another month or two for the police to get around to actually going to the unit and ordering them out. So say a tenant fails to pay the rent. In real life you're probably not going to evict someone for being a day or two late, but let's say you're pretty hard-nosed about it and start eviction proceedings when they're a month late. There's at least another two or three months before they're actually going to be out of the place. Of course once you send them an eviction notice they're not going to pay the rent any more. So you have to go four, five months with these people living in your property but not paying any rent. On top of that, some tenants do serious damage to the property. It's not theirs: they don't have much incentive to take care of it. If you evict someone, they may deliberately trash the place out of spite. One tenant I had to evict did over $13,000 in damage. So I'm not saying, don't rent the place out. What I am saying is, be sure to include all your real costs in your calculation. Think of all the things that could go wrong as well as all the things that could go right." "This can be done, and there have been many good suggestions on things to do and watch out for.  But to my shock I don't see anyone offering any words of caution about property managers! Whatever you do, don't assume they have your best interests at heart.  Do not assume that ""no news is good news"" and that if you aren't hearing of problems and are just collecting rent checks, everything must be fine. You can easily end up with tenants you would never have allowed yourself, or tenants with pets that you would not have allowed, etc.  Especially if the manager doesn't want you to have a vacancy and potentially lose you as a client, they may very well lower their standards just to get the place occupied.  And a year or two or three later, you may find yourself looking at a very large repair bill and wonder how on earth it could have happened when you supposedly had someone looking out for your property! There are quality, ethical property managers out there.  They are not all bad to be certain.  But whatever you do, check up on them.  And with multiple properties - especially if in multiple areas/states etc. - this can be nearly a full time job in itself.  As the saying goes, ""Trust, but verify"".  I have never found this to apply more than with rental properties and property management. Don't leave anything significant to them 100%.  You can't even assume that a rule like ""all expenses over $50 must be cleared by me first"", as that can simply mean that they don't bother to come to you for certain kinds of repairs that would cost more than that, or that they just get them ""taken care of"" by their own person (done poorly, illegally, etc.) and never tell you.  Never trust their choice of tenants blindly.  Visit the place yourself at least every few months - a quick driveby at a minimum or better if you can, arrange a reason to walk through the house personally.  Check the back yard, never assume that the front yard is indicative of anything else.  Never assume that a ""no pets"" rule will be followed, or that tenants wouldn't lie to the management about having pets.  Never assume that the tenants won't move additional people into the property as well. Always expect a bare minimum of 1 month vacancy every year, and an additional minimum of 1 month's rental revenue in unexpected maintenance/repairs every year.  This is at a minimum!  You might do much better than this, and have a high quality tenant in place for years who costs next to nothing in extra maintenance.  But do not count on it. Rental real estate investing looks so simple on paper, where it's just numbers.  But reality has a very rude habit of surprising you when you least expect it. After all, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition! Good luck!" "He entered into a contract to pay because he liked the payment methods offered He entered into a contract.  Full stop.  End of story. Therefore he is off the hook for repayment AND doesn't need to add a new method of payment Your friend needs to look at the contract (or better, have someone who actually understands contracts look at it for him). He needs to understand not what he thinks it says or what he wants it to say or whatever farcical interpretation of contract law he's talked himself into, but what it does in reality say.  Which, in every such contract I've ever seen, has never, ever, said ""you will pay in the manner you choose and if we choose not to accept it then gosh darn you win and get to live here for free!"". I suspect your friend is in for a lot more very bad outcomes in life if he thinks this is how contracts, and life in general, works.  :-)" Couple of my friends went through a fraud agent who ran off with their money and the landlords were none the wiser. So it always pays to be a bit diligent. Are they a well known letting agents nationally ?  Many agents do have different accounts to manage their properties. Yours seems a case as such probably i.e. they manage the property on behalf of the landlord so keeping their monies differentiated. Did you sign an agreement ? If yes go through what is written in the agreement, most of it is same in all agreements but have a look anyway. Check if there is mention of deposit protection scheme. One thing you could do is go to a bank to do the transfer, the same bank where the letting agent holds their account and confirm from them if it is really a personal account or a business account. I am not sure how possible it is, but doesn't hurt to ask. If it is a personal account, then fraud is the most possible cause. The sort code should tell you which branch and which bank. Or the best option is to ask the estate agents to show a recent statement of the bank account, where the money is to be deposited into. Some tips "I used to be the sort of person who would tell you that I've left money for you somewhere and in fact not have done so, and I also used to be the last person you'd expect to do something like that. I've not done this exact thing but I've done similar. Not gonna go into detail but at that time I was in a state of poverty, barely able to buy food and drink, and the money I saved by ""conning people"" in similar ways was spent on food and warmth.  Personally, I think she's going through a very hard patch financially and as such has done exactly that. Me? I'm not a landlord and I'm probably far too generous. I would explain that I think she's lying but let it slide this month. Clearly a property owner is more financially capable of soaking up this expense than a tenant.  On the other hand, you don't become a property owner and landlord by letting people get away without paying their rent.  All in all, I would probably push for a 50/50 decision. She pays half rent this month which alleviates her finances a bit if she is genuinely in trouble and has lied, and you still get something for your efforts. If you're lucky, when you suggest it she will come clean. I would make it clear if you do or don't believe her, as she may well confess if you express your doubts. If she does, I wouldn't hold her to paying the full amount unless she offers to do so. Also, make it very obvious that this can and will not happen again. Next time, she gives you cash or uses a banking service. Goes without saying I guess.  You should note that legally speaking, by accepting anything other than full payment you could be acknowledging that she did attempt to make a payment and any future legal cases will not consider that favorably for you. I would strongly recommend discussing this with a solicitor before agreeing to anything other than full payment."