Student Rental payments

[Chris Hutton]

My wife and I have a 2/1 rental in a college town. We're in our 2nd year renting to students and haven't had a late rent payment until this year with one of our students.

Our students pay by semester (fall semester due at day of move in; spring semester due by 12/31/10). One student didn't pay on time and the parents got involved (They didn't want to pay because they weren't going to receive money from a loan they took out until late January and they didn't want to draw down on there savings). After my wife re-explained (my wife works in an FDA industry and went through this contract line by line with the student) the default section of the lease contract and that we were going to enforce it immediately we were paid within three days.

I'm want to prevent this scenario with future students. I'm curious to know how others handle when semester rent payments are due? Should I require full year payment up front? back the date up to the 1st week of December for spring semester payment? Should I have the parents co-sign the lease with the student? especially if the money is coming from the parents?

Any advice is appreciated

Thanks
Chris