Amending a rental greement

[Roy Lam]

I have a tenant who has been late on rent payments twice in five months, this month she still hasn't pay all of the rent for September.  I charge her $50.00 late fee after five days.  So she rather pay the late fee and be late for so long.  I would like to amend the rental agreement and raise the late fee so high that she would pay on time.  My question is, can I change the contents in the rental agreement while it doesn't expire until February 2020?  If so, what is the maximum I can charge for late fee?

[Matthew Olszak]

@Roy Lam No, you can't just change a contract (the lease) you and your tenant entered into, unless it states such or the tenant agrees. $50 is decent, depending on your rental rate. @ 1k/mo rent, a $50 fee with them paying 30 days late every month comes to an effective interest rate of 60%.

What you'll find is if the late fee is crazy high (assuming your local laws don't limit it), they simply won't pay it, and you likely won't evict because the rent is being paid eventually. The key is to make it as high as possible for you to still collect it, not to discourage them paying late, because obviously this tenant doesn't care about the later.