Cash is king and time is money. If you're a landlord, these words ring very true. Whether you rent out a single family home or own multiple rental complexes, your business depends on rental income. However, if you are a landlord, you will probably encounter at least one tenant who is consistently late or fails to pay rent in full every month. And if you don't experience this, consider yourself lucky.

When you find yourself with an unreliable tenant, time is very valuable and you may find yourself considering eviction or sending out a 5 day notice to help keep your tenant paying. It seems to be a habit of a landlord to print out a notice, trudge over to the rental, and pound on the door hoping that the tenant will answer.

While personal service is a perfectly acceptable way to serve a notice, it may not always be easy. Tenants like to avoid their landlords, especially if they are behind on rent. If a tenant dodges service, you may post it to their door, but only after multiple attempts. It may take several days to properly post a notice and by then, you have already wasted time and money. Furthermore, the tenant may claim they never received the notice, and it is your burden to prove to a court that you did serve it properly.

The most reliable and easiest way to serve a notice is via certified mail. Yes, there is a cost associated with this, but it is airtight in court as long as you keep the receipts. In Wisconsin, a notice, no matter what type (and excluding subsidized housing), is deemed received 2 days after you send it via certified mail. Even if the tenant refuses to accept it or claims he/she didn't receive the notice, it is still served properly if sent certified.

Save yourself time and money by sending notices via certified mail. No more hiding in the corners to try and catch a tenant to achieve personal service. You no longer have to spend days chasing your tenant around only to end up posting a notice to their unit after several attempts. Simply send your notice via certified mail, wait until it expires, and either collect your money or get that eviction started right away.

Here at Richard Steele Law, LLC, we send all of our notices certified. Contact us today if you need help or have questions on the proper procedure. Put those days of personal service behind you and let us help you!