Rent Collection Issues

Some tenants will have trouble paying bills, and rent is one of the issues that they might experience. Tenant is legally responsible to pay rent. Yet, for some reason such as unexpected financial problems, sometimes regular monthly payments also become a landlord’s problem. Here, we will talk about some of the rent collection issues that landlords may face, and the following are some examples:

• There are tenants who forget to make the rent payment on time, simply because they forgot. If you are dealing with a tenant who forgets to pay their rent on time, you can ask them to enroll in an online rent payment, where they can set up an automatic rent payment. It’s the most convenient way of paying their rent. The tenant only needs to enroll in automatic rent payment then afterward he can just fund the account and everything else goes automatically. The beauty of online rent payment method is that it gives automated bookkeeping workflows as well that helps keep you well organized and saves time.

• Send payment reminder to tenants. You may send the email a few days before the rent is due. It would be good to start this kind of reminder as early as possible so to set a pattern. It will help remind the tenants that their rent is due soon.

• The non-paying tenant. The landlord might experience this kind of tenant. This could happen to any landlord. A landlord must make a solid lease agreement stating the policy for your tenant. Make sure they understand all the details of paying rent such as how to pay when you need to receive the payment, and how much they need to pay. You may offer rent payment solutions like Automated Clearing House so the money will go directly to the landlord’s bank account. And to avoid finding a non-paying tenant in the future, ensure to choose the right one. Make sure to do strict background and credit screening to prospective tenants.

• Late payer. You need to check your state and local landlord-tenant law to make sure you are following the rental law fees correctly. Late fees are legal as long as it’s written in the lease agreement and you follow local laws in regards to the amount and when to charge it.

• If you receive a bounced check, make sure to contact the tenant right away. If they don’t fix immediately, you may advise them that late fees may be applied. You may check in your state rules to know if that is applicable. Ensure that you say something about bounced check in the lease agreement that they must follow that you both agreed upon.

Managing a rental property might seem an easy task after you got a good tenant to move in, but sometimes we can be dealing with some unexpected issues that may arise but fixing these issues can be easily managed as long as you have a good and well-outlined lease agreement.