Late rent - what process do you use to collect?

[Andy Kaplan]

My MTM lease has a date due for rent of the first of the month. There is a grace period til the 5th of the month at 5pm. If not received, they owe an additional 5%.

I have a tenant that is occasionally late on rent - ranging by several hours to several days. My question is: How do you assess the late fees?

- Do you send a letter with the additional charge for next month?

- Do you send a letter requesting the late fee immediately?

How do you handle this?

Thanks in advance... AK

[Cody L.]

Property management software.  They all will add late fee to a ledger.  most will also email the tenant letting them know they're late.

If you don't use any software to manage properties (you should) then simply add it to their ledger in whatever you use to manage (excel?) and email them to let them know.  But it's better when it's automated so they know it's just part of the process vs. you manually doing it.

But ALWAYS charge late fees.  I just posted about this.