Late Fees Not Being Paid

[Jason Lee]

Hello...

I have a tenant who is not paying late fees.  He pays late always past my 5 day grace period.  Sometimes I have to mail a 3 day pay or quit, and he pays up.  My lease states clearly a 50$ late fee, and I even sent a copy of the bank statement explaining he is 250$ behind in late fees.  The property is 3 hours away, and other than this he is not a problem. 

I am not going to try eviction over it mainly because it is difficult to find a tenant who will agree to do ALL repairs, and maintenance themselves on a rental.  Just wondering if you guys have any advice.  I even sent him an ATM card so he can deposit rent directly into the ATM which accepts cash.  I have been thinking in the back of my mind well he won't have much of a security deposit left when his lease is up.  Perhaps that is an option when he signs a new lease I request another deposit?  It is 750$ monthly with $750 deposit.

Thanks.

[Paul Bowers]

If your lease is written properly he is actually late on the rent and not on the late payment fees.  The money he is paying you should be applied to the previous late fees prior to being applied to the current rent so he is currently behind on the actual rent.

You've trained him that he doesn't need to pay you on time, you need to correct that immediately.  I would rather have my tenant pay me my rent than do repairs on my property.  If he pays me on time I can afford to hire a professional do the repairs.  If this were my property he would be getting a 5 day notice immediately.

How often do you inspect the property?  You assume he's doing repairs and maintenance but that may not be the case.  If you are inspecting the property on a regular basis then you could also be doing any needed repairs when you are there.

Not to sound harsh but you need to run your business like a business and not a hobby.