Section 8 & Late Payment Fees

[Wesley W.]

Hi folks,

I have a section 8 tenant who is currently only required to pay $20 of his monthly rent (the rest is paid by the county).  I require my rent to be paid via checking account (tenants go to my bank, deposit their rent in x account every month).  I find this to be a low maintenance way of documenting and tracking the incoming rents.  No "check's in the mail" excuses or having to stop by the property and collect it manually.

In my rental agreement, I have a $50 late fee that is levied after 5pm on the 5th if the rent is not paid in full.

This month is one the first where he actually has to contribute to his rent.  He did some shoveling for me for $10, so he owes $10 for this month's rent.  Hypothetically, if he didn't pay the $10 by the 5th, he would owe me $60.

One one hand, "it's only $10" and a $50 fee seems excessive, yet I have a late rent policy that I strive to enforce in a consistent way and if everyone shorted me by $10 or $20 my returns would reflect that.  I don't know if this is something I will need to follow up with section 8 with or not.

My feeling is he has the money, but can't be bothered to walk down to the bank to deposit the money, and if I allow him some other means to pay (I pick up the cash, MO in the mail, etc.) I am just allowing tenants to shift their payment responsibility onto my list of "things to do."

I'd like to know if people out there have been in similar situations, and how would you handle it?

Thanks in advance!

P.S.  Like I said this is hypothetical (it's the 4th today), but as a new landlord I am trying to anticipate dilemmas and how I should handle them.