Is the owner keeping all or part of the security deposit or is management ending? This article will show you how to send a security deposit on a lease to an existing owner in your Rentvine account and include it as part of an owner distribution.
This is also a guide to returning security deposits from a lease to an owner, upon concluding management of the property.
- First, in your Settings, create an income account in your chart of accounts for "Security Deposit Transfer Owner" or something similar
- Then, go into that specific lease
- Click on Leases on the left side
- In the lease search box, search for the address or tenant(s)
- Click on the lease when you have found the correct lease
- Create a charge on that lease for the income account you just created in the amount of the security deposit (or the amount of the security deposit you are sending to the owner)
- In the lease, click the green Actions button on the right
- Click Add Charge from the dropdown
- Select the new Account you just created
- Enter in the Amount of the security deposit that you are giving to the owner
- Click Save
- Go back into the lease, click the green Actions button, and click on Release Deposit from the drop down menu
- In Release Deposit, enter in the amount of the security deposit. Then, enter that amount in the Security Deposit spot below, and in that charge you just created below that
- Edit the Date Posted if needed
- Enter in the Amount of the security deposit that you are returning to the owner
- Enter in a Description of "Returning security deposit to owner" or something similar
- In the Deposit Balances section, enter in the Release Amount, which will be the same amount that you entered above
- In the Pay Charges section, enter in the Amount to Pay into the charge that you created in step 3, which will be the same amount that you entered above
- Click Post at the bottom right
- Now, you should see these changes reflect on the portfolio ledger as an increase if you go to that specific portfolio ledger.
Please note that this can also be accomplished through the move out flow. The move out flow automatically releases the security deposit and applies it to unpaid charges. For additional help regarding the move out please click here. - The next step is to make your disbursement to the owner through the Pay Owners screen
*See the article How To Pay Owners
The final step is recording a bank transfer within Rentvine.
The final step will only apply to you if you return security deposit money from a bank account that is separate from the bank account that you hold that money for the duration of the lease (i.e. you hold security deposits in a separate escrow security deposit bank account, but you refund the money to the tenant from your operating trust rental account). If this step does apply to you, then you will want to transfer the money at your bank, and you will also want to record a new bank transfer in Rentvine as well to account for the transfer at your bank.
If you only have one bank account, or if you refund security deposits from the same bank account that you hold that money in, then the final step will not apply to you.