So You Had a Bad Day the Rent Is Late Again

Terminal updated on May 8, 2021

When yous own rental property you're jump to have a state of affairs where the tenant pays the rent late. Maybe they're out of town, the hire check may have been lost in the mail, or they simply forgot well-nigh the rent.

Regardless of the reason for late rent payments, it's important to protect your rights as a landlord when the hire isn't paid on time by sending a belatedly hire notice to the tenant. In this commodity, nosotros'll explain how a belatedly observe works, and why a late rent notice is such a critical certificate for landlords to employ.

What Does a Tardily Rent Notice Mean?

A late hire discover is a written notice or letter of the alphabet sent to the tenant past the landlord notifying the tenant that the rent is past due. The belatedly rent observe serves three purposes.

Beginning, it puts the tenant on notice that they have violated a term in the lease requiring the rent to exist paid by a certain appointment and gives the tenant a take chances to cure the state of affairs by paying the past due rent in full.

The second reason for sending a belatedly rent discover to a tenant is to certificate the fact they've paid the rent belatedly. Everyone forgets things every now and and so, so the tenant may never pay the rent late once more. But if they stop up paying consistently late calendar month after month, the tardily notices sent will document their habitual belatedly-pay behavior and may be used every bit evidence to finish the lease (if your charter and the state landlord-tenant laws allow).

Third, sending a late rent observe is the kickoff footstep in the eviction process. Ideally, the tenant volition pay and you won't need to evict. Withal, it's a fact of life in the rental real estate business organisation that sometimes you volition end upwardly with a bad tenant despite having a thorough tenant screening process in place.

How Many Days Tin can a Tenant be Late on Rent?

The fourth dimension between the hire due date and the date the rent is late is known as the 'grace period.'

The reasoning backside giving the tenant a grace menstruum is that sometimes at that place is a delay in the delivery of the payment, such as slow mail commitment or the bank not posting a deposit until the following business 24-hour interval. To avoid payment delays, many landlords use a free online rent payment service such every bit Cozy, RentTrack, or Zillow Rental Managing director.

How a Grace Menstruation Works

As a dominion of thumb, a standard grace period is between ii to v days before the rent is technically delinquent and a tardily notice is sent.

Some states have a legally mandated grace period, while other states leave it up to the landlord to decide if they want to offer a grace menses and the number of days in the grace menstruum. Your local belongings manager and land landlord-tenant laws will explain how the grace menstruation for your market place works.

When to Send a Late Rent Discover

A late notice should be sent the twenty-four hours post-obit the expiration of the grace period. For case, if your lease agreement states that "the rent is due on the 1st of each calendar month and past due on the 3rd solar day of the month" the notice should be dated and postmarked on day number three.

Sometimes landlords hold off a twenty-four hours or two before sending a late notice, peculiarly if it'due south the first time the tenant has paid late.

While the thought is overnice, a landlord should send a late hire notice equally soon every bit possible. If the tenant has never paid late before, you can always send the notice and and then requite the tenant a friendly courtesy call, advising them that the late notice has been sent equally part of your standard operating process.

The problem with being flexible with the grace menstruation is that the tenant may fall into a bad behavior pattern of paying the rent tardily. A late-paying tenant affects your greenbacks menses and potentially causes y'all to pay your bills late as well, which is a situation that every landlord wants to avoid.

Can Landlords Charge a Belatedly Rent Fee?

Provided your charter and landlord-tenant laws permit, it's perfectly legal for a landlord to charge a tenant a late fee. The rationale for charging a late rent fee is to compensate the landlord for the time and trouble of having to send a late rent observe and to serve every bit an incentive for the tenant to pay the rent by the due date going forrard.

How to Fix a Belatedly Fee Amount

A late fee corporeality should exist large enough to penalize the tenant for paying the hire belatedly, but not so large that the tenant has trouble keeping up time to come rent payments. The belatedly fee amount can exist a certain percentage of the monthly rent, such every bit 5%, or a fixed fee equal to the aforementioned amount. So, if the monthly hire is $1,500, the late fee would be $75.

When to Charge a Late Fee

The tardily fee should be charged as soon every bit possible after the due date or the grace menstruation ends. If y'all don't have a grace catamenia, the late fee would exist charged on the 2nd twenty-four hour period. If y'all accept a iii-day grace period, y'all will charge the late fee on the 4th solar day.

Drawbacks to Accepting Partial Rent

One time you charge a late fee the full amount of rent due increases. Using the example above, the full rent the tenant must pay to become current is now $ane,575 ($one,500 rent + $75 tardily fee).

What happens if the tenant only pays $i,500 and you accept the payment?

By accepting less than the bodily amount of rent due, yous are sending a indicate to the tenant that the late fee is negotiable when it really isn't. Also, if you are in the middle of an eviction procedure, you lot will have to start over once again considering yous accepted a partial rent payment from the tenant.

How to Write a Late Rent Notice

A late rent notice should include the following information:

• Proper noun of tenant or tenants on the rental agreement
• Name of landlord or property manager
• Location of the holding
• Date late rent discover is issued
• Amount past due
• Late fee amount
• Total amount of hire due to become current
• Due date of total rent earlier eviction process begins
• Grade of payment for the total rent due (to avoid an NSF check)
• Consequences of failing to pay the hire in total and for continuing to pay tardily
• Signature of landlord or belongings manager

Exist sure to keep a copy of the notice sent in the tenant file, including proof that the observe was delivered to the tenant, such as certified postal service with render receipt requested. You lot volition demand this should the tenant continue to pay the rent tardily and you decide to evict.

Free Tardily Rent Notice Forms

Yous can download free late rent find forms in Word Doc and PDF formats from the following websites, or simply search online for "belatedly rent notice form +Your State":

• Apartment Guide belatedly rent notice
• eForms notice to pay or quit form for late hire
• ezLandlordForms late rent notices to tenants
• LegalTemplates free belatedly hire discover
• RentPrep 5 gratis forms for landlords
• TemplateLab 34 printable late rent notice templates
• Zillow free landlord notice templates

Many existent estate attorneys who specialize in residential evictions have complimentary forms available for download on their websites. Avvo and LawInfo are two good sources for finding eviction lawyers in the state your property is located in.

How to Evict a Tenant for Not Paying the Rent

Let'southward take a quick look at how the eviction process works, forth with two less expensive alternatives to evicting a tenant.

The process for evicting a tenant differs from country to country. In general, in that location are viii main steps to follow when evicting a tenant:

1. Know your local landlord-tenant laws.
2. Make sure your reason for evicting the tenant is valid.
3. Speak with the tenant in person.
4. Deliver a written eviction notice.
5. File the eviction in court.
6. Prepare documents and nourish the courtroom hearing.
7. Adios the tenant using local police enforcement services.
8. Obtain a judgment and collect past due hire.

Alternatives to Evicting a Tenant

Evicting a tenant is fourth dimension-consuming and expensive. The entire procedure can take 30 – 60 days, depending on the city your belongings is located and the time of year.

Co-ordinate to TransUnion SmartMove and BiggerPockets, the average cost of an eviction ranges from $iii,500 to $7,000. These amounts include legal fees and court costs, lost rent, damage caused by the evicted tenant, and marketing and leasing expenses for finding a new and better tenant.

Obviously, information technology makes good business sense if you lot can avoid legal action entirely and get the tenant to willingly leave the premises. There are two good alternatives to evicting a tenant:

• Talk the tenant into leaving by meeting with the tenant face-to-face. Consequences to being evicted include a bad credit report, garnished wages for the by rent due, and a bad rental history study.
• Offer the tenant cash for keys by paying them to leave. With the average cost of an eviction running into the thousands of dollars, giving the tenant money to exit lets you lot cut your losses and re-hire the property to a more qualified tenant who will pay the rent on fourth dimension.

Tips for Getting a Tenant to Pay Rent On Time

Sometimes tenants pay the rent late considering they accept no choice. Perhaps they've lost a job, had a medical emergency, or a change in family status.

Notwithstanding, in that location are likewise several things a landlord can do to get a tenant to pay the rent on time and avoid having to accuse a late fee:

• Ready a fair market rent for your property compared to similar homes in the area past using tools such every bit Rentometer or the Roofstock Cloudhouse Calculator.
• Thoroughly screen all potential tenants by conducting a background bank check, running a credit report, and pulling a rental history.
• Review the terms and atmospheric condition of the leasing with the tenants, and remind them once more of their responsibilities when doing the move-in inspection with the tenants.
• Make it easy for your tenants to pay their rent on fourth dimension and avoid tardily fees by using an online rent payment tool such as PayRent and RentTrack that reports on-time rent payments to the credit bureaus and disallow partial hire payments.
• Go on the lines of communication open with your tenants so that they receive a quick response to any maintenance requests or have questions near renewing their lease.

Final Thoughts on Dealing with Tardily Rent

A belatedly rent notice is an of import document landlords use to train tenants to pay their rent on time, and to employ every bit the get-go step if a tenant has to exist evicted.

The late observe is sent to the tenant if rent isn't paid in full past the due date, and normally includes a late fee to compensate the landlord for the time and problem of sending a late rent notice.

You can avert having to transport a late hire observe by making it like shooting fish in a barrel for tenants to pay their hire online and by ensuring your hire is fair and at market.

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Source: https://learn.roofstock.com/blog/late-rent-notice

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