GA Landlord Advice about Evictions

[Rick M.]

My landlord/tenant contract states pay rent by the 5th of the month by 5 p.m. During the first year, my tenant failed to pay rent on time and sometimes we had to threaten him with eviction letters. We reluctantly signed a 2nd year with him because we did get all of his late payments and the property was taken care of.

During the 2nd year, I let one late payment slide as a courtesy due to tenant family circumstances. But I have been keeping up with all other late payments. But during the month of July, he was completely unable to pay in a timely manner. So I had to file for a dispossessory proceeding, but it was short lived because I received rent from him on the 15th of the July. So I cancelled it.

Then in the month of August, he failed to pay on time so I have now filed a dispossessory proceeding and it is now the 15th and still no payment. I am being advised by my realtor to evict him due to the fact that we are having to chase him every month with late notices and the recent delays in payment.

1. Do I need to get a lawyer involved for our court date? Or try to represent myself?
2. Am I being too extreme or is this normal for a land lord to evict a tenant solely based on excessively late rent
3. Does the tenant have any advantage he could use against me? i.e. could he say I didn't enforce my contract by charging him late fees, hence, I rendered the contract invalid and can't evict him? Or some reason like that.