Issues with payment are the worst! Glad it worked out for four years, but I know how big a hassle it can be to do this dance every month.
Venmo is super convenient, but it’s not awesome for rent payments. I wrote a blog on the issues with Venmo, Zelle, and other similar payment apps.
TurboTenant’s rent collection features are built to avoid a lot of the headaches you’re describing. You can set due dates, automated late fees, and your tenant can automate their payments so no one has to rely on their memory each month. Better yet, we send out rent receipts so you both know the rent was paid!
I would follow the terms of the lease. I would charge the late fees and demand payment. I use turbo tenant and I do not allow partial payments. I would also send him a written notice reminding of the due date and letting him know payment will be due along with late charges to prevent further actions.
I have a tenant that does the same what I did was setup the automatic late charge as per my lease agreement and set it where they can’t make partial payments or payments without addressing the full balance. Mine always pay it before the grace period but I’d say don’t even listen to excuses follow your lease after grace period set the autolate charge through turbo tenant, if they don’t pay by then follow your eviction process.
I have a tenant like that. She doesn’t want to use Turbotenant to make payments (the rest of the tenants do). I was depending on her to make the bank transfer but she is very lazy and I had to ask multiple times. At last, I ended up creating ACH from my Bank to her Bank and withdrew on a date. She is paying the ACH transfer fee as well. So far so good.
Be firm on charging late fees. We charge $20/day for late payments. We hardly ever have to charge it, because they know it’s a steep fee, and when we do it usually only takes one or two days, and then they never pay late again. Sometimes we have charged late fees, then waived them when they say they are sorry and it will never happen again, but we tell them (in writing) that we reserve the right to reinstate prior late fees if they are ever late again.
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I have a set late fee of $55 a month. Wondering if I need to go to weekly late fee? I have a tenant that pays late fee for the last year never on time but always pays before the end of the month. It’s now to the point where they are almost a Month behind. How would you guys handle it?
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Follow the terms of the lease and charge late fees per the lease. I would send a letter explaining that this is a continuing issue and to please pay on time. Then, when lease is up, don’t renew them. Headaches aren’t worth it.
