Late lease payments grace period

[Javier Perez]

Hi, 

This is more of an opinion question I guess. Currently, I do the following for my tenants:

1. Send out a notice on the 1st of the month as a reminder that rent is due.

2. If payment is not received. 24 hours before the grace period hits (the 5th of the month) I send out another notice advising that a late fee will be assessed if payment is not received by the 5th.

***I've never had to go past this point.***

The following step I would take is sending the official "Late notice" with the late fee accessed on the total.

At this point how long do you give the tenants before you send it over to your attorney and start the eviction process?? Or at least how long do you tell the tenant that they have before this process starts?

Like "If payment is not received with X days legal action will be take" 

Thank you everyone...

[James Syed]

@Javier Perez

In Illinois, we have a 5 day notice for non payment. If the rent is not received in 5 days (excluding Saturday & Sunday), lessor can file forcible entry detainer (eviction). 

In addition, if your property is under an entity i.e, LLC, corporation, etc, you will need to seek legal counsel. You can't represent yourself so it's costly.

We have omitted grace period from our lease agreements so rent is due on 1st and it's late on second. 

Hope it helps.