Early payment of rent

[Chris T.]

Good afternoon everyone,

I would like to receive my rents before the end of the month, and require my tenants to deposit those payments directly to a bank account.  What is the best way to do this?  I have thought of several approaches, and am wondering what others think and, of course, whether I have missed something and any of these approaches are specifically disallowed under Massachusetts law.

1. Require that rents be paid by the 15th (or maybe the 20th) for the following rent.  Rents received after that date are late.

2. Have my monthly schedule for the rentals run from 15th to 15th (I see several advantages to this, but the fact that it would be out of sync with most landlords might create significant problems).

3. Have rent due on the 1st of the month, but offer rebates for rent paid by the 20th of the previous month.

I am grateful for all constructive input-- thank you!

[Rich N.]

Hi,

#1 - As others have stated, you can not charge late fees until after 30 days, so it is better to serve 14 days notice for non-payment on the 2nd of the month.

#2 - You are right, you can do the 15th to the 14th, but it definitely mess up the timeline with other places.   This method won't last too long as once a tenant wants to move out, they will not be able to move in until the 1st.....they will stay from the 15th to the last day and nothing you can do about it. 

#3 - Most tenants live paycheck by paycheck,  trust me most of them will not have the funds to pay earlier for the discount.

#4 - in another posting you mentioned that it was to be 1/2 way thorough the month and you can remove them.  You will still have to go with a 14 day notice and then the rough 3-4 weeks for a court date.

#5 - your initial posting mentioned have then put money in your bank account.  Sounds great if you have great tenants.  But, if you have a bad tenant, you can go through the 14 day notice, wait out the 3-4 weeks court day and the day before you go to court, they can deposit some cash in the account, then show up at the hearing and say they made a payment and you accepted so therefore the 14 day and court hearing is  essential void.  Read up on this.