Need some advice. NJ Tenant paying really late . Lease up 2/28/19

[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!

[Sheltocks M.]

Hi:

You have to nip bad behavior in the bud. Once tenants exhibit bad behavior, limit personal interactions. Your safety is important.  Document, document, document so you have supporting information for eviction.

I train my tenants to treat this as a business transaction. I schedule a meeting and discuss the lease and my expectations before the tenant moves in. If rent is not paid  by the 5th of the month, I file eviction proceedings on the 6th. Absolutely no excuses.  

If your tenant can't pay the current rent, I'm not sure how they will pay the increase but you could try. Either way that tenant has to go. If you go to Rentometer.com, you can get an idea of the range of rent you can charge. Either way they need to go. All the best.