Long time tenant refuse to pay late fee

[Meng W.]

Hi everyone,

Wonder if you can help me out here. My tenant rented a floor in my house for 6 years now and her lease has been up for 4 years. I am not planning to renew it in any means. Her monthly rent payment is always on the 15th but i allow her to have one more week ( until 22nd) to give me the rent. Last month she gave her rent in on the 23rd at 10pm. This month she only gave me her regular rent payment without the late fee. Do i deduct it from her security deposit before she move? Keep in mind i have recorded and kept copies of everything she gave me and qhat i gave her including a reminder that she was late and late fee will apply to next month rent. 

Also since i have been raising her monthly rent every year, does the security deposit initally stays the same or do i ask the tenant to give me extra to balance the new rent payment ? 

[Account Closed]

When you allow the tenant to pay rent whenever they want it changes your contract.  You have confused your tenant now as to when her rent is due since you allow her to  pay whenever she wants.  So charging her a late fee is on what date?  How can there be a rental due date when you keep moving the rental due date?  So late fees are going to be the decision of the Judge now and not per the contract because you have compromised the contract. 

You can't make her pay more security deposit just because you raised her rent.  If you wanted to do that you should have done that each year you raised the rent.  But if I were your tenant I would have moved.  A security Deposit should be stable.  Raise the rents but don't spring it on a tenant having to pay more money into a Security Deposit, times are tough, she'll find somewhere else to go for sure.

Nancy Neville