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Jan 2007 - Have you ever received a check and taken it to your bank only to learn that there are either insufficient funds in the account to cover the check’s amount or that the account is closed? If so, please read on! The information that follows pertains to Arkansas’ hot check law only. If you are from another state, contact your local prosecutor or district attorney for the appropriate instruction regarding the collection of bad checks.
In Arkansas, the pertinent statute specifically states that rent falls under the hot check law. As property owners and managers, that is important. If a check is given to you for rent and it is returned to you by the bank, we can help you collect your money. You are entitled to the face value of the check, a $25 merchant fee and any other bank fees that might have been charged to you.
The process is not a hassle. It is easy and in most cases takes only a few minutes of your time. Once a check is returned to you by your bank, labeled “insufficient funds” or “account closed,” simply take the check to your local Prosecutor’s Hot Check Department where you will be assisted in completing an affidavit of arrest for the bad check writer. You are not required to contact the bad check writer to notify him that his check has been returned to you.
Upon completion of the affidavit, the Hot Check Department will notify the check writer and allow him the opportunity to pay the check plus a merchant fee, bank charges, and prosecutor’s fees (those fees pay all the expenses of the Hot Check Department, thereby allowing the office to be paid for by the offenders, not by the taxpayers). If the bad check writer fails to pay the check as instructed, the Hot Check Department staff will then take the affidavit you completed, turn it over to a district court, and an arrest warrant for the check writer will be issued. He will then be arrested and will have to appear in court. Should this occur, you may be subpoenaed to testify against the check writer. Should the judge find the individual guilty, he will not only be required to pay the face value of your check, the merchant fee, and the prosecutor’s fee, but he will also have to pay fines and court costs. It is amazing how these bad check writers can produce the money once they realize that they can and will be arrested if they do not pay.
In Arkansas, Hot Check Departments are located in almost all prosecutor’s offices and our results speak for themselves. In 2004, Arkansas Hot Check Departments collected over $11,000,000 for our merchants. In my jurisdiction of Pulaski and Perry Counties, we have collected as much as $2,000,000 in one year for our business owners. In closing, your best defense against bad checks is some minimal work on the front end when you rent your properties. Get a copy of the tenant’s driver’s license, make sure that the license number belongs to your tenant, and use common sense when accepting checks. If someone else is paying the rent for your tenant, make sure to request and note the check writer’s driver’s license. Doing so will allow us to prosecute and collect from the person who signed the check.
Jeanenne W. Vowell is the Hot Check Department administrator for the Sixth Judicial Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. She has also served in many other capacities for the office such as receptionist, records clerk, satellite office supervisor, and records department supervisor. Jeanenne lives with her husband and daughter in Arkansas. She also has a son, daughter-in-law, and two grandkids.
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