Charge late rent fees or not

[Ayman Elmasik]

Hello landlords,

I have a rental property in Houston Texas and tenant is giving me really hard time for paying the rent almost every month (he paid all rents so far). he is always late in the payment by 2-10 days. in my contract I should charge him $50/day for late rent. he paid the late fees only once.

Need to mention that the house is not in a very attractive rental area and it took me 6 months to rent it.

1- Should I start an eviction process based on the fact that he is not paying the late rent fees, knowing that I might be stuck with it empty for another 6 month.

2- can all these late fees be deducted from his deposit at the end of the contract?

Thanks for the help in advance,

Ayman 

[Marc Cunningham]

You want to be sure your lease has a clause that the landlord may apply monies paid FIRST to non-rent obligations (late fees), THEN to rent due. The reason for this is that most judges will NOT allow you to evict for late fees owed. So this clause allows you to apply money first to the late fee then the rent balance; so if they have an outstanding balance it is RENT (not a late fee), and you can evict for that.

You are doing a good job charging and holding to your late fee. Treat your property and tenant like the business that it is. Tell you tenant he can easily avoid the late fee by simply paying on time. 

As long as he is paying consistently and otherwise a 'good' tenant, I would not evict for only paying a few days late each month (as long as late fee is coming in). Consider extra income for the headache of dealing with it. 

Don't wait and try and deduct from his deposit at the end, that is a dangerous game to play as most judges won't allow it - but then again you are in TX!