Rejecting Deposit Due to Homeowner Not Present

There is no right or wrong answer to this question as you are under no obligation to accept any check for deposit. In most states, a payee has three years (one year in some) to claim a forged endorsement and it is up to each individual institution to make a risk-based decision when accepting a check when it cannot verify an endorsement. If your relationship with this commercial client is not strong enough for you to be willing to accept this risk, your customer has the option of either bringing the payee in as you have requested or finding an institution that is willing to accept these checks for deposit.

First published on BankersOnline.com 7/16/12