Transferable Skills... Rent Collections
This blog is mostly about my small multi unit but before that, we owned a modest collection of single families... life was quite boring with those from a tenant standpoint but recently, it's been more like the multi-unit. Fortunately, I still have my 'eviction kit' (how sad is that... to need an eviction kit?) and I know how to use it.
Our late day is the 6th, plan to post on the 7th, but didn't get it done til the 9th... I drove down my personal yellow brick road in a very nearly straight east/west line with pay-or-quits in hand. Boom-boom-boom-boom... four postings in 4 miles. If nothing else, my dead-beat grouping was very efficient.
Favorite responses...
"whine... I've been paying every two weeks just like we agreed, what do I owe?" Ummm - the entire month's rent plus late fees. If you'd been paying every two weeks like we agreed, I'd owe YOU money.
"whine... they garnished my check, I didn't know you could do that for medical bills... whine... it's my daughter's birthday and I won't be able to do anything for her... whine..." Ummmm - the best gift your daughter can get for her birthday right now is a home, don't you agree? Yup, I did it, I said that out loud.
Three of these are tenants that have been with us for less than a year and are only green-broke, so to speak. The fourth is a problem we have allowed to develop and now get to fix, a tenant that will pay in the end, I just want us moved up the list. If I seem a tad unconcerned, I'm reasonably certain that 3 of the 4 will pay.
The drama tenant above was intentional risk-taking and is the one multi-unit tenant in this group. I knew going in that there was the potential for problems but for a variety of reasons which would make their own blog post, we agreed to give it a shot. Maybe I was bored after taking the multi-unit down to an occupancy of three. Or I like the pain. Time will tell.
Comments (9)
Susan: We have most of tenants (all of our students) making e-Transfers to pay their rent. We still have three who pay by cheque and two who pay cash. For the latter two, we have provided each with a deposit only ATM card and they are responsible for depositing their own rent.
Roy N., over 10 years ago
2,5 of 4 rents... one was paid by the tenant's church. I'm very concerned about that situation and will schedule a sit-down to discuss
Deborah Burian, over 10 years ago
We've moved to direct deposits. It's fantastic. Renters use their own banks' bill pay or we supply deposit slips. They can go in person to the bank, mail to the bank or pay online to the bank, whatever they like. I check my online account with no running around. It's also easier to enforce late fees since there's a time stamp and nothing gets lost on the mail. Hope it works for you, it's well worth it.
Susan Gillespie, over 10 years ago
I do always love a good story of tenant excuses for not paying rent. I also think saying that to them was awesome. In reality not being homeless is a far better gift than whatever piece of superfluous crap she wanted to buy would be. As would be an example of responsibility for the young lady to emulate in the future ...
Shaun Reilly, over 10 years ago
Most of ours are money orders and this was as well. Getting ready to meet with my bank on direct deposit. We offer electronic payment through a third party vendor but it's a tad unwieldy.
Deborah Burian, over 10 years ago
Deborah B. Was it certified? Once our tenants are late, we require they pay with certified funds (certified cheque, bank draft, electronic transfer or cash)
Roy N., over 10 years ago
Because I know inquiring minds want to know... I did get my first slacker check today... now for the other three...
Deborah Burian, over 10 years ago
Awww, you could be right
Deborah Burian, over 10 years ago
Deborah B. It's just their way of making you feel needed ... maybe not appreciated, but needed. ;-)
Roy N., over 10 years ago