Advancing Rent Due Dates

[Kaybreh Mathis]

Hello! We just bought an apartment building with many inherited tenants. The old landlord allowed many of them to pay their rent at the end of the month. For obvious reasons, especially because most of these tenants are sketchy, I'd like to move those due dates back to the beginning of the month. These are the kind of people who would live in the apartment for the entire month, and then move out (they're almost all month to month, from expired year-long leases with the previous LL) and then I'm out the rent for that month. How do you transition them to paying at the beginning of the month? For example, they will pay August rent this Friday, the 28th. I obviously can't request full September rent due almost immediately (they are all on tight budgets and live paycheck-to-paycheck). Do you move due dates back one week at a time, until they're paying at the beginning of the month? Do you adjust rent to be for an extra week every month, for four months in a row? Can we even do that, or are we bound by their expired leases with old LL? Does it make a difference if they're in a current lease or not? We're newbies, so any advice is appreciated! Thanks!

[Nicole Heasley Beitenman]

If their leases are expired, you're not bound to them. If a lease is still active, you are bound to it (I'm speaking with Ohio knowledge; check your state's laws). If the leases are expired, they need new leases yesterday. Then you can put whatever due date you want on there.