What to do when tenants are late with rent
Written by admin on April 10th, 2011In order not to stand at a disadvantage with your tenants in the future, every landlord must take due diligence when putting up a tenancy contract between the tenants and himself. You might need to consult an estate broker or a lawyer on this issue so as to do a good job. However, the two parties must understand the terms of payments. Like the day the rent payment is due, how rent payment is to be done, who to pay to or where to pay or means of payment must be cleared. The landlord must also specify when rent payment is late.
If the term is understood by the tenant and he still went ahead and defaulted in payment the landlord might do the following. One must however inform the readers that the actions to take against rent defaulter differ from State to State. There are few common ones that can be applied by an ailing landlord.
Issue a rent notice: the first thing to do in this situation is to send a Notice of Rent to the tenant; be sure the mail is received by him. This will inform him that his rent is late and that he is expected to pay. Likewise inform him that late payment is against the tenancy agreement he appended to, and that the consequences of defaulting can mar his credit rating.
Make a phone call:
After 2 days you have served a Notice of Lateness and there has been no response from the tenant, you can make a phone call. The call is to find out what might be wrong. Calmly inform the tenant of the consequences of his action if he refused to pay by a specific time, you will commence an evicting proceeding against him. Another thing you can do is to send a Notice to End Tenancy Early for Nonpayment of Rent. Demand exactly what you want from the tenant by a specific time.
Eviction notice/ attorney letter:
Another thing you can do to follow up the actions previously taken is to inform your lawyer to write the tenant an eviction notice instructing him to pay or pay the consequences. You should demand that the tenant should pay or pay the repercussion of eviction. You should be specific about the time the payment should be made and be prepared to follow the eviction procedures if the tenants refused to pay.
Eviction procedures:
At the end of the stipulated time, if the time elapsed and the tenant have not paid the stipulated amount nor vacate the premises, then inform your lawyer to start the proceedings to evict the tenant. If not you don’t want to end up losing thousand of dollars as rent choose a lawyer vastly skilled in landlord/tenancy eviction to speed up the proceeding of the case.
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