How Certified Mail® software saves Property Managers time and money.

By Andrew Newmark | April 4, 2023

Property Managers use Certified Mail® to deliver important notices to tenants, such as notices of overdue rent, fines, lease violations, terminations, and evictions. This is because Certified Mail® is a cost-efficient way to deliver these notices, and the Proof of Mailing (Acceptance) and Proof of Delivery provided by Certified Mail® satisfy the legal requirements detailed in Property Management-related state statutes across the country. To cite just a few examples:

In New York State, the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 mandates the use of Certified Mail® to deliver notice to apartment lessees of the failure to pay rent.
In Florida, Statute 83.49 requires that a landlord send a written notice to the tenant, by Certified Mail or equivalent means, before withholding any portion of the tenant’s security deposit. The notice must include certain information, such as the reason for the withholding and an itemized list of the deductions.
Also in Florida, Statutes 718.112 and 720.303 require that condominium and homeowner’s associations send a written notice to the unit owner or homeowner, by Certified Mail or equivalent means, before imposing a fine or taking other disciplinary action.

Rather than preparing Certified Mail® with the old-fashioned USPS forms, and managing Certified Mail® Receipts and Green Cards, which is labor intensive and prone to error, many property managers have switched to online software from SimpleCertifiedMail.com to streamline the entire process and save considerable time and money.

Easier Preparation:

SimpleCertifiedMail.com enables property managers to prepare Certified Mail® envelopes, complete with electronic postage and USPS® tracking barcodes, by printing Certified Mail cover sheets with any standard printer, then folding those cover sheets along with their letter into Certified Mail window envelopes, as shown below. You can then leave the Certified Mail® for your Mail Carrier to pick up or drop them into any USPS® Mailbox. No more USPS forms, postage meters, and trips to the Post Office. If you have a large number of pieces to mail, Batch Processing features make it easy to prepare dozens, hundreds or thousands of Certified Mail letters, direct from address lists managed in Microsoft® Excel.

A finished Certified Mail #10 envelope, with cover sheet and letter inside. 6” x 9” and 9”x12” envelopes are also available. Certified Mail labels are also available for Priority Mail boxes.

Easier Tracking:

An Electronic Proof of Acceptance (PDF file) is available soon after the Certified letter receives its first scan at any outbound facility. It is accepted by state and federal courts, as prima facia evidence that the Post Office took possession of the mail piece at a specific date and time.

Instead of waiting a week or more for Green Cards to return to your office, the USPS Return Receipt Electronic is posted to your account within 24 hours of delivery. The Return Receipt Electronic carries the same legal status as the Green Card. And since mailers are sometimes unable to recognize the recipient from their signature or USPS item number, SimpleCertifiedMail.com adds a box in the lower center of the form with the recipient’s name, address, and any text the mailer has added to the “Reference” field in the SimpleCertifiedMail.com software before mailing.

Certified Mail not requiring a signature confirmation receives a Proof of Delivery Electronic (PDF file), also within 24 hours. For mailers that rely most on the Proof of Acceptance for compliance with state statutes, having the Proof of Delivery Electronic completes the mailing record.

Sample PDFs for Electronic Proof of Acceptance, Proof of Delivery, and Return Receipt

A 10-Year Online Archive:

All three PDF files, along with the USPS tracking information for each mail piece, is retained in your account for 10 years. They can be accessed and printed by authorized users at any time and can be downloaded. In addition, you can download production reports to track your mailing costs, making it easy to bill these costs back to your clients, when appropriate.

APIs Enable Integration with Custom Software:

APIs enable Property Managers with their own proprietary software to automate requests for Certified Mail® cover sheets and labels complete with electronic postage. Also, to pull down tracking and delivery information, electronic Proof of Acceptance, Proof of Delivery and Return Receipt, and even production and cost data. APIs also provide Property Managers with the ability to integrate Mailing Services, which outsources the printing and mailing of both Certified Mail and First-Class letters, and maintains a copy of the transactions and documents for ten years.

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