Advice needed . Tenant keeps paying late

[Bryan Tomko]

Hi everyone. I recently purchase a 2 unit property in Phillipsburg, NJ . I own a sfh rental in Pa. This is our first Multifamily. Shortly before closing i sent out a letter to tenants informing them of my purchase and how to pay rent. Downstairs tenant quickly set up payments but upstairs was very slow to register for payments. November 1st came and went and i reached out to them on 11/5 to let them know late fee would be assessed following day . A payment quickly processed for half of rent and I quickly told them that this was not acceptable. The response was would you rather have half than nothing lol. They paid balance following week. I did offer to set a payment plan up to catch them up . Basically fell on deaf ears. Fast forward to last month I had a bit of a heated exchange with the husband who basically told me to try and evict him. I sent out 10 day notice to cease and they paid up. This month same thing. Question is how much should i raise rent to try and get them out? I am told as long as they keep paying, all be it late i may have to evict them anyway . but my thought is they won't be able to pay higher rent. Any advice is appreciated!

[Account Closed]

I have delt with this issue numerous times and, from my experience, can tell you it doesn't get better.

I used to evict over the issue through a three day notice for non-payment (this is how it works in CA) but my approach these days is a little different.  Now I just give them a 30 day notice to vacate (60 day if they have been there over 1 year, again CA laws) and offer them their deposit back in full the day they move out if they get all possessions out (I would inspect for damage prior).  They still have to pay for the days they are there.  It means I eat cleaning costs, but the headache of continuous late payments is not worth my time.

A tenant that continuously pays in partial payments or the whole thing late means some month in the future it just won't come at all and you will be evicting them owing rent, possible damage, and cleaning anyways.