Troublesome Tenant Fees

[Jeff Cotton]

I have a house that every month the person is late.  I charge late fees and so far he has paid them.  But he is still late VERY LATE every month.  I am continually running into trouble because I have to hound this guy for the rent payment.  He has been as late as two months.  At wits end, I send him a 7 Day Letter letting him know I am booting him and he pays.  But I am sick of messing with this guy.  I am actually helping a friend who owns the property because she is older and doesn't want the hassle of messing with the house.  So because I have several I volunteered to help her.  But I am tired of running this guy down every month with 10-15 calls and stopping by his place of employment and the other folks always saying he is not there... and texting to no avail.  I was wondering if I can charge some type of "worthless scumbag dealings" fee?  Any thoughts?

[Bill S.]

@Jeff Cotton the only thing I would add to what @Bill Gulley said is that you get what you allow. Your behavior has trained the tenant as to what is acceptable. Remember this, the Landlord is in charge and the tenant is not. You have let the tail wag the dog. 

Someone that gets two months behind rarely catches up. Even one month behind is very hard to catch up. Think about it this way, a tenant living where 1/3 of their income (most landlords' minimum income requirements) is needed for rent is only a week or two away from insolvency. Once they are two months behind, they would have to go without everything else for a full month just to catch up. Even if someone is willing to do this, it's just not possible. Allowing someone to go beyond 5 days creates significant risk that the landlord will end up not getting paid and that the security deposit will not cover lost rent (not to mention damages). Post notice as soon as allowed by your lease and state law. File for eviction as soon as allowed by law. That is the way that you keep this behavior in check.

Don't let your greed for late fees cloud your judgement on this issue. If they had the money for rent they would pay it. Adding late fees makes it harder. Late fees are absolutely necessary to train the tenant but you cannot begin to "like" that money. It's for the tenant's "benefit" not the landlords. When you are thinking of adding an "admin fee" you are not considering the full picture. There is only so much money coming into the tenant's possession each month and the landlord can only take so much of that or you will kill the golden goose. Once money paid to the landlord exceeds 1/3 of the tenant's income it's only a matter of time before there will be an "episode" and the tenant leaves the landlord high and dry. It says nothing about the tenant, it is just a function of simple math.