Late fee dispute

[Mike Webb]

Looking for some feedback on how the folks in BP land would handle this... I have a tenant who's rent is due the 1st and late after the 5th...normal, right? They are 50/50 with paying on-time, when they are not on-time they pay the late fee, no issues. Our lease outlines they pay via depositing directly at the bank I use with deposit slips. Routinely, they utilize the night drop and it posted to the account. This month, they put the rent in the night drop, with no account info, just my name. The deposit was not made until after close of business the 5th. The bank calls this morning (the 7th) and asks about the deposit with just my name on it. I give them the info and the deposit is squared away; however, it was made sometime after noon on the 5th. So when I let the tenant know they need to put the account info on the deposit next time and that the late fee is due since it was not made by the 5th, their response was "the bank can't verify when they made the deposit so we're not paying it". How would you handle this? Move on and keep this in-mind when it comes time to renew or force the issue? It's only $45 but I feel it is clearly outlined and that paying on-time is a point that I don't waiver on (at least not without a late fee). Sorry for the long post about a simple issue.