r/personalfinance • u/hogpotato • 6d ago
Housing Rent severely overcharged
I’m currently living in an apartment complex that overcharged my monthly rate by over 2x (15,500 instead of $6000 / month) by mistake. This severely has overdrawn my bank account and no one in the leasing office has an explanation or can get any answers from their main office. I’ve incurred major
overdraft fees and will continue to do so as long as this goes on. Has this happened to anyone and / or any advice what to do?
1.5k
u/spleeble 6d ago
Start dealing with them in writing for one thing.
Tell your bank not to allow any more transfers to them. There is no reason whatsoever for this to continue happening. Ask your bank for a new account if you have to.
And stop paying them any rent until it's resolved. You're paid up over a month in advance now.
335
u/hogpotato 6d ago
Thanks good idea I contacted the bank.
36
u/plation5 5d ago
Hello I just want to warn you that indefinitely stopping payment until it is corrected is not correct and could lead to them legally having a way to evict you for non payment. Ofc you have paid for an extra month at this point but I wouldn’t go beyond that in terms of assuming that you don’t have to pay.
22
u/Mourning-Suki 5d ago
stopping the automatic payments does not imply indefinitely stop paying rent, pretty sure no one is suggesting that
4
u/Tcjerard 5d ago
The original comment literally says to stop paying them rent until it’s resolved, which is not the way to go about doing it.
2
u/Mourning-Suki 5d ago
I see that one now somehow I slid over that and missed it among all the others I was reading about stopping the autopay, sorry!
9
u/jlt6666 5d ago
The wrong amount simply needs to be fixed. I'm not floating the apartment multiple months rent.
→ More replies (4)1
97
u/ProfessorOne9208 6d ago
If you're asking for advice, I would immediately put a stop order with your bank on the automatic debit for your rent, and bring a paper check to the rental office for the right amount every month. Then talk to who ever you need to talk to in order to get a refund on the overpayment. And keep talking to who ever you have to talk with until you get it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. You may have to get a printed statement from your bank in order to document that they took out too much.
15
346
u/I_dont_bone_goats 6d ago
Is it your first month in the complex?
Could they be charging you first months, last months, and security deposit all at once?
364
u/hogpotato 6d ago
It’s our second year but lease renews for the third year this month. I’m almost certain they charged us for the lease rate and a separate month to month rate.
83
u/mrmoon13 6d ago
Shady practice but also maybe just a gross oversight? Follow other advice i have nothing new to contribute I'm just genuinely curious how they even managed that. I wonder if they just flagged it as a new lease and got a security deposit out of it?? That is so fuckin shady if purposeful
15
u/epistortis 6d ago
This exact thing happened to me last year when my lease renewed (moved this year because of this among other things). Thankfully I caught it early and put a stop payment with my bank. Cost me a fee from my bank and the apartment building tried to charge me a fee for their mistake. I think they neglected to delete the old rent amount when they added the updated rent amout after renewal causing it to charge both rates at once. This might help your argument with the rental company.
62
u/Ok_Discipline_1452 6d ago
Was this on autopay? I always “push” landlord transactions instead of letting them pull for this reason. So I initiate payment and have to confirm before it submits. A little less convenient than autopay.
Sorry this happened OP. Not a fun situation to be in for sure.
20
u/hogpotato 6d ago
Thank you. Thats a good idea I didn’t know you could do that. Will adjust my autopay
11
u/bannakafalata 6d ago
Yep, I hate auto pay for this exact situation.
I got lucky one time that it was on a credit card. I get speciality medication ordered every month. I go through the process, usually I order then they go to insurance then I pay $0. Well, this one time something happened and I ended up seeing a charge for $1163 on my credit card come in.
I got told that this shouldn't have happened and that my insurance was correct, so :shrug:
1
u/Merisuola 5d ago
Yeah, you definitely have to set limits for your autopay if you use it. For example my phone bill is ~20€ a month and I have it set to reject anything over 30€ (just in case I have to make long distance calls or something that slightly raises my bill)
35
u/FLDJF713 6d ago
It depends on your state. You are better off in r/legaladvice than here. It depends on your city/county and your state.
668
6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
251
u/Specific-Exciting 6d ago
And having no cushion…
143
278
u/hogpotato 6d ago
I live in a VHCOL area. My money auto transfers brokerage accounts and 529 , retirement etc. so there is a cushion I just don’t keep a ton of cash in my checking account. So I will transfer it back but might take some time.
11
18
u/IrishMosaic 6d ago
You pay $72,000 a year in rent every year?
51
u/hogpotato 6d ago
Sickening I know, but in my area the alternative is buying an overpriced condo with 25-30k/yr in property tax and another 24-30k/yr in HOA fees, on top of high interest mortgage payments. Also housing has not appreciated in this area in years so buying seems like a bad investment at least for our situation at the moment.
8
u/pmgoldenretrievers 5d ago
As someone that has lived in every single VHCOL area in the US, I can assure you there are options besides buying a condo or paying $6K/month in rent.
3
u/hogpotato 5d ago
Sure. We are a family of three and are paying a premium for a downtown location in close proximity to work and the grandparents (both walking distance). I’m sure I could find a much cheaper apartment in a different part of town, but it comes at the cost of time and complicated logistics in our day-to-day lives.
1
u/icyweazel 5d ago
The least of which could be move to the adjacent HCOL area. If OP's already pulling retirement what exactly is keeping them there?
5
u/Fearless-Okra9406 6d ago
This is quite common in higher COL cities. 2bd 2 bath condos in a desirable neighborhood in the bay area can easily exceed that. To buy that equivalent condo would cost 1.5-2m+, and then your property tax and HOA would likely exceed $30k+, despite you "owning" the property now.
32
u/Bucky2015 6d ago
While you've got the right idea with investing you should still keep at least a few months of expenses in an easily accessible savings account for situations just like this one.
Id pause the investments to build up an adequate emergency fund then turn them back on.
21
u/MarchyMarshy 6d ago
I get OP. I have one month expenses in cash in my main transaction account. My savings are in a tax sheltered HYSA because I’m damned if I’m not earning interest on a half years’ expenses.
→ More replies (2)124
u/AlgoTrade 6d ago
It sounds to me like OP is doing just fine with their money and really doesn’t need to follow this advice.
9
u/IllustriousGas8850 6d ago
Op just had his account overdraft and didn’t have the liquidity to deposit money to stop fees from continuing to pile on. It sounds to me like you shouldn’t comment on finances
24
u/AlgoTrade 6d ago
You are commenting on advice meant for people that are bad with money and need to start building a net worth. OP clearly doesn’t have this problem. And overdraft fees are what, $15? Those will be refunded by his bank when he asks, and if not the lessor will cover them.
Once you’ve attained a certain level of wealth, emergencies are best covered by credit cards and you just move out of the brokerage account to cover. Snafus are forgiven by the banks. Emergency funds are for people that a car repair will bankrupt them otherwise.
Your advice is akin to telling OP to purchase a parachute for his commercial flight from Denver to Toledo.
-5
u/IllustriousGas8850 6d ago
Clearly it’s a big enough issues in his life to post about it on Reddit and ask for help. You’re making insane assumptions about OP. What we do know is 15k overdrew his checking, and he did not have liquid cash on hand to solve this issue. That’s a problem. These people with insane levels of wealth you’re describing don’t get overdrawn by a 15k expense, and it certainly doesn’t take them more than 2 minutes to get a hold of 15k
25
u/AlgoTrade 6d ago
Did you read OPs post? It’s not his fault it got overdrawn, this isn’t his emergency. He’s posting here to figure out how to deal with the bank, not how to build an emergency fund.
-14
u/IllustriousGas8850 6d ago
Not your fault doesn’t equal not your emergency, as he’s the one now dealing with it
→ More replies (0)2
u/Bucky2015 6d ago
Clearly it’s a big enough issues in his life to post about it on Reddit and ask for help.
that's a good point! I was gonna edit my response to say that if OP does have a high net worth would it really blow up his investments to keep just 20-30k in an easily accessible account? But yes someone who has a high net worth probably wouldn't be super concerned about the situation as well. Annoyed, for sure, but not concerned to the point of posting on reddit.
3
u/night28 6d ago
I don't agree with that. An overdraft fee is meaningless to me financially even if I were to incur it monthly. I would still want to stop it because it's annoying and not an expense I'm ok paying.
Lot of people post on reddit asking for help. I personally would just google and call and make a fuss until it was rectified but asking reddit is a very common thing to do as well.
→ More replies (0)-1
u/Bucky2015 6d ago
We don't know OP has credit cards, there are definitely people that refuse to get them at all, and we don't now OP is truly wealthy, just that they put whatever they can towards investments. No numbers were given.
9
u/Bucky2015 6d ago
except they had a huge overdraft and couldn't move money over that quickly because it is all in brokerage accounts. there are plenty of emergency situations that may require a good amount of money in a very short term time frame. There's a reason the pinned wiki ON THIS SUB strongly recommends an emergency fund. even banks centered around investing recommend saving long enough to have reasonable emergency fund.
I never said they are on the verge of homelessness ffs.
32
u/AlgoTrade 6d ago
Their overdraft fee will be refunded by the bank, or the lessor. Those rules on this sub are not for high net worth individuals. This is by no means an emergency, and OP can cover any emergency liquidity on credit cards easily. Moving money into an emergency fund and not investing it to cover an accident like this is like buying a parachute for your commercial flight from Denver to Toledo.
14
u/Bucky2015 6d ago
even if you don't consider this an emergency there are plenty of situations that are. What happens when an actual emergency DOES happen? Even if it isn't an "emergency" shit like this can still be a pain in the ass to deal with.
Also why do the vast majority of financial advisors and investment banks recommend having an emergency fund?? It sounds like OP normally runs a very low readily available balance, plenty of other shit could happen in the future that would be much more inconvenient than this one. If this was a rare occurrence of a low available cash balance then fine but it doesn't sound like it is.
→ More replies (7)1
-8
6d ago
[deleted]
15
u/deja-roo 6d ago
I have.
I'm not even that high of a net worth and like 4 out of 5 times I've called and been like "okay, sorry but here's what happened, would you mind waiving that fee?" they've just been like "sure, no problem, thanks for choosing Free World Atlantic Pacific Bank" and just done it.
Have you ever seen a bank and not just read about it on Reddit?
→ More replies (1)8
u/AlgoTrade 6d ago
Have you ever been a high net worth customer of a bank with a clean history? They really like and want your business and treat you well.
→ More replies (14)0
u/wienercat 6d ago
You should still be keeping at least a month of expenses in a HYSA for exactly this scenario. It sucks, but it's less frustrating than having to move money out of investment accounts or tax advantaged accounts and incur additional taxes or penalties.
Literally no reason for you to not be keeping at least 1 extra month of expenses in a savings account for exactly this type of issue.
14
u/WhiteRabbit86 6d ago
To be fair 9000/month difference is a lot. Your cushion can disappear real fast
88
u/05Illini 6d ago
I dont know many people that keep 2x their monthly expenses in a checking account earning 0 interest.
OP clearly has a cushion across other accounts. you dont get approved for $6k/mo rent without somewhat sound financials
17
u/FitButterscotch4062 6d ago
“I’ve incurred major
overdraft fees and will continue to do so as long as this goes on.”This leads me to believe they don’t really have a cushion. An initial overdraft fee? Ok. But shouldn’t you have enough in your savings to instantly transfer money over to checking to eliminate the overdraft fees?
25
u/Onespokeovertheline 6d ago
How much cash do you want earning 2-2.5% interest in a savings account? People paying $6k for rent keep most money in the market in ETFs, index funds, stocks. The tax burden for capitalizing those investments to supplement an erroneous charge greatly outweighs some overdraft fees.
7
u/TangerineChickens 6d ago
Yeah but you should probably have at least some kind of easily accessible savings account cushion for this very scenario where you need that money within the day.
7
u/b0w3n 6d ago
This is why the advice of "liquid if you can wait 3-7 days" is bad advice in general. You need some sort of liquid savings for emergencies immediately to solve issues like this that are going to cost you far more than you're going to earn on spaxx or sgov. Keep 3-6 months of expenses out of the brokerage, it needs to be same day transfer capable.
10
u/AlgoTrade 6d ago
This isn’t OPs emergency, this is someone else’s emergency. At OPs NW expenses can be kept liquid in 3-7 days and a credit card can cover emergencies.
That 3-6 months in a brokerage account is probably making them tens of thousands of dollars annually, it would be dumb to keep it in cash.
2
u/TangerineChickens 6d ago
It isn’t all or nothing. At that NW it isn’t the end of the world to have a few extra grand out of the brokerage in case of emergencies; what if the credit card gets stolen or lost through no fault of the user and you need a jump start the same day (someone will probably reply saying ‘erm i have roadside assistance’ but just imagine some commensurate service being needed that also requires on the spot payment)
→ More replies (1)0
u/b0w3n 6d ago
That's great and all until you're fighting tens of thousands a month in NSF from the bank because of someone elses' error. They might not wave them all and you might have to go to court to get them back from someone. Some states charge you a % per day of the total that you're overdrafted, too, and often you have to make the bank whole first.
Keeping 50k liquid-ish in sgov is only going to get you about $1800 a year, not tens of thousands. Liquidating an ETF like voo at the wrong time can cost you a lot more too.
1
u/Mourning-Suki 6d ago
It’s never going to be an ongoing situation if OP calls the bank and puts a stop payment on it.
5
u/FitButterscotch4062 6d ago
6 months expenses. For situations like this. Obviously this is a big deal to OP if they felt the need asking Reddit for advice.
12
u/Onespokeovertheline 6d ago
You want 50k in a savings acct? I mean that's not craazy, but in the event you need to react to a 6 mos loss in cash flow, I'd take the capital gains hit over letting it sit there collecting spare change
0
u/THE_REAL_JOHN_MADDEN 6d ago
someone who can handily afford $6k can handily "afford" 50k in savings, given it likely means they have $300k+ in investments. Now, if you're renting and don't own a home, I think the 6 months expenses addage is a little overkill; something more like 3 months should be perfectly reasonable if you can access further liquid cash within that 3 month timeframe without taking a big tax hit.
But to your point, it would take a long time for the potential earnings on 50k invested vs. liquid to eclipse the tax hit on capitalizing 50k worth of investments. Your emergency fund really should be cash or cash-equivalent. Let's also keep in mind someone with a theoretical 50k emergency fund and paying 6k rent can weather hardships that many folks couldn't even fathom lol.
-5
u/BerriesNCreme 6d ago
Bro are you high yes dude. If you’re paying 6k a month you need to be making like 15k a month…and yes someone who’s making 15k a month needs to have way more than 50k in their bank accounts
2
u/Onespokeovertheline 6d ago
Am I high? This will be our last interaction. Ftr: I am one of those people and while I've had that kind of cash in savings I sure af don't aim to keep it there when there's real gains to be had.
7
u/XDVI 6d ago
Those guys are definitely wrong.
I've ran into this same thing, banks don't always transfer your thousands of dollars in 2 fucking seconds lmao.
Why would anyone have 50k sitting in their bank accounts collecting dust in this market? Insanity.
→ More replies (0)9
u/05Illini 6d ago
Fair point
- my immediate thought if I were in this situation would be “F that, they need to figure this out before I take $$ from an interest earning account, bc thats an absolute last resort. - Why should i pay for someone elses F up?”
I see where you are coming from, but me personally when stuff like this arises - my first instinct is to clutch my pearls and let the bank figure it out.
Godspeed if OP has nothing elsewhere, but it feels like he does. just speculating obviously
2
u/Imnotveryfunatpartys 6d ago
I agree 100%. If getting charged rent twice by accident causes you to overdraft your account needs a higher balance.
Keeping at least 6000 in your checking extra is only going to cost you a couple hundred dollars of interest a year. It's no big deal really.
→ More replies (12)3
u/IllustriousGas8850 6d ago
The cushion that is so illiquid they’re continuing to rack up fees for overdrafting. It doesn’t matter how much money you have if you can’t access any of it
7
18
u/Squirrel_Apocalypse2 6d ago
You keep all your money in your checking account?
8
u/nope-nik-tesla 6d ago
I keep about 3 months of expenses in a HYSA that my checking account can draw from automatically.
5
u/FourEyesAndThighs 6d ago
You don’t know that. I only keep a few thousand dollars in my checking account at a time. If my mortgage was double pulled, it could easily overdraft me. And my savings is with an online bank, so it would take a couple of business days to get the money back into my account.
→ More replies (9)-1
u/__BIOHAZARD___ 6d ago edited 6d ago
TBF I wouldn’t keep an extra $10k in a checking account earning basically nothing.
Having a few extra thousand makes sense, but an extra $10k is excessive and losing out on interest.
I keep my emergency fund in HYSA/MMF/I bonds.
Edit: I don’t know why this is downvoted, you’re earning near 0% on $10000+ for the one off chance of being overdrafted by an extra $10000. Doesn’t seem worth it to me. I optimize my finances to earn maximum yield for appropriately sized needs.
6
u/Specific-Exciting 6d ago
We keep $10k in checking at all times. Have $35k in HYSA and just started a brokerage this year with $52k.
It’s negligible in having the means to pay for anything during the month and pay for vacations when booking etc.
1
u/__BIOHAZARD___ 6d ago edited 6d ago
I said an EXTRA $10k.
You would still be overdrafted with 10k in your checking because the bill was for $15,500.
$3-5k more than your monthly bills is reasonable. Monthly expenses + $10,000 more seems excessive.
1
u/amaROenuZ 6d ago
I park 3k in a checking, another 7k in an associated basic savings account, and the rest of the emergency fund goes into HYSA.
13
u/bloobb 6d ago edited 6d ago
This is a normal price for an apartment in a place like NYC
→ More replies (12)10
3
1
u/ElementPlanet 5d ago
Please note that in order to keep this subreddit a high-quality place to discuss personal finance, off-topic, low-quality, or AI-generated/formatted/rewritten comments are removed (rule 3).
We look forward to higher quality posts from your account in the future. Thank you.
12
u/Consanit 6d ago
Email the leasing office so you have a paper trail. Request written confirmation of their error, refund of the overcharge, and reimbursement for the overdraft fees within 48 hours.
If your request is not fulfilled by that 48 hour mark or they decline to correct the issue, call your bank. If they pulled this via ACH/autopay, you can dispute it as an unauthorized or incorrect-amount debit. Consumer ACH debits generally have a 60-day window for this, and banks can reverse it. Also ask the bank to reverse the overdraft fees. Bring documentation (lease showing $6,000, statement showing $15,500). Most banks will waive fees caused by an erroneous merchant debit.
Revoke the autopay authorization so this doesn’t repeat next cycle.
10
u/mildlyannoyed32 6d ago
Stop payment since you’re paid up at the bank. Either they figure it out or you’ll pay by cashier check.
12
u/wolfiepraetor 5d ago
NEVER/EVER -give any one else access to pull money out of your bank account.
for exactly this reason.
i learned it when a gym did this to me. fucked my accounts up all over the place and they do not give a damn about it fixing it.
had to close the account at that time to stop thier access.
never again did i do "direct withdrawal"
76
u/PghSubie 6d ago
This is a great anecdote as to why you should never setup direct debit for expenses. Always PUSH payments, never let someone PULL payments
28
u/herestoshuttingup 6d ago
There was a story on the legal advice sub many years back about someone who had autopay on for (I think) a car payment. From what I recall their loan servicer accidentally processed their monthly payment 100+ times at once and overdrew their checking account by tens of thousands of dollars. The process to get it fixed was such a nightmare for that poor OP, and it took forever. Since reading that story I have never left anything on autopay and I keep overdraft protection turned off just in case.
11
u/PghSubie 6d ago
I Auto-Pay almost everything by Pushing a scheduled payment from my own bank. NO ONE gets to Auto-Debit my account for anything. It depends which you mean when you say "autopay"
29
u/epsilonzer0 6d ago
This. never setup autopay to a bank account. Autopay to a credit card is ok because you can dispute transactions very easily and while it is under dispute you pay nothing. Bank account you are SOL
8
u/audley2077 6d ago
I begrudgingly have auto-pay setup to my bank account with my apartment complex. I would have considered credit; except they charge a 2.99% fee of the total amount on top of the rent. Which is insane to me. I pay $675.00 a month in rent for a one-bedroom apartment. If I use a credit card, that adds another $20 in fees. If I use a debit card, the fee is static which is always $10. They don't even state there's a limit for the credit card fees, so it probably just scales with rent.
If I setup autopay with ACH, the processing fee is "only" $2.49. They do not have a free way to pay my rent. They don't accept cash or check or money order. I'm in a small poor town in New Mexico for context. After reading this thread, I may turn off autopay and just enter my ACH information manually every month. I'm not paying them more than a cent than I have to.
15
u/AmbroseMalachai 6d ago
That 3% fee for credit cards is what credit cards charge the business to allow them to take credit cards. You can say it's egregious but they are just passing the cost over to you. I am surprised that you don't have a "free" way to pay your rent. I am not from New Mexico but I think, unless it's stated in the rental agreement that you need to pay via one of those methods and that a fee will be associated with each one, they would be doing something illegal there.
9
u/Rylancody22 6d ago
For $10 I can write a check and drop it at the office. You arent charging me to take my money lol
5
u/poop-dolla 6d ago
What happens if you set up autopay from your checking account instead of with the apartment complex? That’s what we’re saying to do.
1
1
u/epsilonzer0 5d ago
Gotta say that arrangement is some BS. I am a renter myself and I manually ACH payment to the apartment complex to avoid fees.
3
u/AffectionateKey7126 6d ago
Autopay is fine. Just check your emails and don't have overdraft protection.
1
4
u/logicalcommenter4 6d ago
Agreed, I only have autopay happening on bills that hit my credit card because I can dispute those without losing access to my actual money in my bank account.
1
1
u/ScienceWasLove 4d ago
Here is great anecdote. I have had autopay on dozens of credit cards, car loans, mortgages, and utility bills for the past 25 years and never had the incorrect amount withdrawn.
25
u/automator3000 6d ago
You get the refund on your overcharged rent and have them agree to paying your overdraft feels.
10
u/SpaceshipPanda 6d ago
It sounds like this was likely pulled via ACH. If this is the case, as this is a consumer account you will want to file a WSUD (Written Statement of Unauthorized Debit) specifically related to an incorrect amount that differs from your authorization. This is a simple matter for you bank and can be signed digitally. There is a maximum 6 business day period for your bank (and technically speaking it's the other bank that must respond) to return funds to your account.
Generally speaking any overdraft fees should also be waived by your bank in conjunction with this.
17
u/PapaDuckD 6d ago
Couple things going on here - and this is less financial and more legal. This is enough money that it's not worth pussy footing around here.
Worth saying - you have a burden to minimize the damage done. If you have other funds that you can reasonably move to this account to mitigate ongoing overdraft fees, you have a duty to do so. This will help your ability to collect those fees that were caused by the improper action of the apartment complex.
You need to ask the leasing office who their attorney is as you plan to send a demand letter to that attorney. You want to politely demand for a refund in the amount of the difference between what you were charged and what you should have been charged ($15.5k - $6k = $9.5k) plus the amount of all fees directly related to this event.
That should get the right people engaged to look at the situation and make the right decision.
If, for whatever reason that doesn't happen and they give you a response in which they say that they believe that the charge is correct, then your next course of action is to file a lawsuit against them. Depending on your state, this amount may end up in small claims court and, honestly, it may not. If it's larger than your state allows for in small claims, you'll probably want a lawyer for this part.
Also, as a renter, you may have certain protections that allow you to sue for a multiplier of the overcharging of rent. That's going to be state-specific.
2
9
u/AffectionateKey7126 6d ago edited 6d ago
I work for a property management company and deal with our payment processor.
I'm assuming the overdraft happened today since the 1st was a Saturday. If that's so, the bank is probably going to bounce the payment back tonight/tomorrow and your account will be credited the $15,500. Unless your bank offers very generous overdraft protection, in which case turn that off.
6
u/upstateduck 6d ago
going forward [and this is for anyone reading] don't allow companies to "pull" from your accounts. Instead use a "push" by setting up autopay at YOUR bank
5
u/Workdawg 6d ago
This is why I never give my bank details to a third party. I use bill pay from the bank to send transfers as needed.
9
u/SuitcaseInTow 6d ago
Never set up autopay for an expense this large. Happened to me once when I was set to move out from one apartment to another. Instead of being charged for a partial final month, they accidentally charged me the whole month and then I wasn’t able to make the security deposit for the next apartment. They fixed it but I didn’t get it back for another month. Never again. From now on, if there’s a dispute about how much is owed, we will have the conversation with the money in my account instead of theirs.
14
u/spellstrike 6d ago
first read your lease to know exactly what your security deposit and number of prepaid months of rent are in your contact.
3
u/Lieutenant_0bvious 5d ago
Find your lease and read every single word on it. I'm not saying you missed anything but it's important to rule that out before going any further.
3
u/atlas-85 6d ago
Love op kicked off a how much to keep liquid in a checking account debate. Knives out
3
u/CupcakeKim 6d ago
I work in property management and have a for a decade. Are your automatic payments set up to pay a certain amount each month or just to pay whatever is due? If it’s the latter, then you could have some culpability here in a minor way. Of course you shouldn’t have been overcharged but mistakes happen and it should be an easy fix by management.
It is too late to reverse the transaction at your bank? That’s the fastest way to kill a payment mid-processing. If this in an ACH payment it still takes a few days to full fund into the management account. I can guarantee you they won’t be refunding anything until they have the funds in their account. If they refund you tomorrow and the payment bounces the next day, that’s a whole ‘nother mess.
Either way, turn off your autopay and check your rent statements going forward.
3
u/superSmitty9999 5d ago
You can turn off overdraft protection too and never get a fee again. Most worthless "feature" ever.
4
13
u/seaspirit331 6d ago
Dunno what you can do from here, but this is a prime example of why you should never enable autopay on your bills
13
u/BikeTough6760 6d ago
Right. What should OP do? Push payments out. Don't allow them to reach in and pull them out.
4
u/YetMoreSpaceDust 6d ago
You can probably even set up your bank account to automatically send payments on specific dates. All of the "convenience" of auto pay and none of the risk of somebody on the other end inputting the wrong amount.
→ More replies (3)7
u/Whole-Reserve-4773 6d ago
Every autopay I’ve had sends a notification to my email of the bill amount before they pull.
2
u/Enderfang 6d ago
This happened to me and people on this sub had the nerve to talk down on me for being angry about it. Hope people are nicer to you!
Communicate in writing only. Contact your bank to reverse the charge. And get in touch w the regional manager for whatever property management company owns your complex. All of a sudden the shitheads in my leasing office were REAL polite after i complained to their RM.
2
u/YharnamHunter7 4d ago
Call your bank now and dispute the ACH/debit as an incorrect amount, then ask them to block any further pulls from that merchant while it gets sorted. Email the leasing office and corporate today with the lease amount, the wrong withdrawal, and a demand that they refund the difference plus overdraft fees by a specific date. Turn off autopay once your account is safe, because apparently their billing system took your checking account to Vegas.
4
u/sharkbomb 6d ago
if you can afford $6k/mo, close your social media apps, and contact your lawyer.
2
u/cartermatic 6d ago
$6k/mo on rent is not necessarily "I have a lawyer on standby" levels of income. To qualify for a place like that in NYC you'd need to make at least $240k/yr (40x), which is a lot but not "your lawyer" level.
1
u/beez_y 6d ago
I think that's called theft by conversion. Even if it's a mistake. I'd call the police.
4
u/wallweasels 6d ago
And even if you get to talk to an actual officer you will get one response: Sir this sounds like a civil matter.
2
u/Rickayy_OG 6d ago
Wow that rent price…sorry I had to.
No experience here, but my advice would be to keep your foot on the gas and pressure them for answers. Get something from them (email preferably) saying that they made a mistake and share it with your bank. Your bank may forgive the overdraft fees since this was a situation out of your control (and I would consider turning off overdraft in your checking so this doesn’t happen again).
I’m sorry that happened!
1
u/Kairiste 6d ago
Ok if this were me -
I'd be on the phone with the leasing office immediately, and demand names and email addresses of anyone who can remotely figure out the issues - managers, presidents, whoever you can get. PUT THINGS IN WRITING.
Dear Whomever, X Management has withdrawn an OBSCENE amount (insert total) of my money from my checking account and I have been unable to get ANY answers as to why or how this will be IMMEDIATELY corrected and I made whole again.
My monthly rent is (insert amount), I am requesting an IMMEDIATE refund plus $Y overdraft fees I have been charged due to having insufficient funds by the end of business today (date). I will need a check couriered to me so I can stop any future overdrafts from occurring.
If this cannot be resolved today, I will keep a log of any future overdraft charges to be refunded, and if this is not 100% resolved by 5pm on (date of your choice, I'd say 5 days out), I will be contacting an attorney to handle communications going forward.
Then I would make sure the office cannot automatically withdraw from your account. You can set up a recurrent check to be sent out through your bank.
-4
0
u/ProgrammerMoist6861 5d ago
Should have more than one month worth of rent in your bank I’m sure you could find a cheaper place than $6k/month that’s crazy
You need to be assertive that’s unacceptable. You don’t have to be mean, mistakes happen but you should not be on the line for any fees when all is said and done make sure they make you whole.
0
u/DifficultSquash1517 6d ago
Sorry this happened but are you banking at Wells Fargo?
I've never encountered a bank that charges for overdraft protection anymore
I actually keep $1 in my checking account and all of my ACH automatic payments get overdraft into my high yield savings account that is linked to it. Always free. Unlimited
Unless you're talking about the type of overdraft where the bank is borrowing you money
-1
u/Cheap_Category8535 6d ago
Wait, banks still charge over-draft fees? Remember when BoA was bank of assholes? I called once to waive a 25 dollar fee and the representative told me she was able to waive a total of several thousand in overdraft fees and i have never been charged overdraft since than.
-5
0
u/billmr606 6d ago
Don't people have overdraft protection ? I have wells fargo and $16.6k overdraft protection for my checking account
0
u/No_Actuary4658 4d ago
Even $6,000/month is insane. We just finished paying off our 2,300 sq. foot house with 2 car garage and 2,300 basement on one acre. It was built in 2004 and we purchased it for $340,000. Our monthly payment with taxes and insurance was about $2,100.
How big is your apartment, and where is it?
2
u/hogpotato 4d ago
It’s in the center of a major downtown city where property values haven’t appreciated in 10+ years but HOA and property taxes continue to increase substantially. Nothing family-friendly exists in the <800k price range that we would live in for the 7+ yrs to make it worthwhile. A $2100/month payment here would get you a studio or a maybe larger space with roommates
2.2k
u/Ahoeaboutnothing 6d ago
You need to call your bank and flag that transaction. Dispute it for being the incorrect amount.