LL mailing back rent payments = form of harassment?

[SlopeGuy]

If you happen to be experiencing financial difficulty and mail out a rent payment the following month, does the LL have the right to mail your check back to you with a letter stating "we have received check #... however you are now in arrears of X amount, which consists of last month plus what's owed for this month?"

Of course this would be closely followed with a rent demand notice from their lawyer and soon a summons to Housing Court where they would initiate an attempt to evict you.

Is the LL mandated to cash perfectly good rent checks from RS tenants upon receipt (whenever you happen to send it in) or do they reserve the right to mail them back if you happen to be tardy and have sent them in the following month? (for example, if I had financial difficulty and didn't send in my June rent until July 10th, can the LL mail back that check and say you now owe June rent PLUS July and we are mailing back your check until you send in the total amount)?

Is this a form of RS tenant harassment? If you are the victim of compounding MCI's, the rent burden gets higher and higher.

[TenantNet]

Some LLs will refuse a check if they have commenced a holdover proceeding in housing court (as opposed to a non-payment, which is a different animal). They do this because if they accept rent between the Notice of Termination and the commencement of the Holdover proceeding, that can reinstate the LL/T relationship and vitiate the holdover.

For a non-pay, you normally don't see that. Some LLs will refuse a partial payment (partial for one month that is). But I normally don't see a LL refusing a complete month's rent (even if other months are outstanding). There's no real benefit for them to do that.

Is it harassment? Could be, but hard to prove and the laws on harassment, although supposedly improved, are a joke.

Keep records that you sent the rent and their refusal. Send all payments with certified mail or a Certificate of mailing (not as expensive as certified). Keep envelopes with postmarks. Get and keep receipts from the post office. You want to show that you tendered the rent and the LL refused it.

If they are taking you on a non-pay, consider demanding any repairs that need to happen and putting in a defense on Warranty of Habitability.

In your defense to the Non-Pay, indicate that the rent was "tendered and refused."