Increasing late fee to motivate rent being paid on time

[Randy Hallowell]

Hi all! Thanks in advance for your help! I have a tenant that is consistently late with rent. It started with a day or 2, then 5, 10 and now we are at 27 days. My rental agreement states that rent is due on the first and late on the 10th its the 27 today and I haven't seen rent. This has been the recent trend for the past 5 months. They get in it before the next month is due but not by much. They are good people and have taken decent care of the place. The rent is $1200. My current late fee is $50. I think if the late fee was higher they might make paying rent on time a  higher priority. We are out of contract and have been for a couple years now. Any or all feedback is appreciated. Please take it easy on the new guy. Thank you again!