Tenant always late

[calltoaction4u]

What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania

We are currently renting to a family who constantly is paying their rent payments late. We give them 15 days before we impose a 5 % penalty. The problem that we are having is the fact that they wait until the 14th day and they pay with an out of state check that our bank puts a 10 day hold on. This obviously puts them well over the 15 day period we gave them in the lease. They contend they are not late because they gave us payment prior tp the 15 day period. However, as I stated, our bank puts a 10 day hold on out of state checks. When we mentioned this to them they still insist on paying on the 14th day. We feel they are actually late at 12:01 on the 12th day of the month ( the day the rent is due ). The attorney we had draw up the lease no longer practices law. Does anyone have any idea what to do here? Are they late as of 12:01 on the day the rent is due? Can we inpose the 5% late fee because we don't have possession of the funds until the bank releases the check? We have told them each time that the bank puts a hold on the check, so we have given them notice. The father of the house is a Federal Air Marshall. GO FIGURE!!!

 

[mizlyn]

You have possession of the funds on the 14th. You don't have to deposit that check in your bank - you could drive (or fly) to their bank to cash the check or go to a check cashing agency. If you insist on depositing their payment in your bank account, you could always require the payment to be in a cashiers check or you could require a local check or a money order. They have not violated the lease if they are paying within the stated grace period.

 

[calltoaction4u]

Thank you for your reply, however, I don't believe flying, driving to their bank is the answer. It specifically says in the lease that payment is due on THE 12th DAY OF EACH MONTH. They pay their rent on the 14 th day and the bank holds the check for 10 days, thus taking well beyond the 15 days we have allowed per our lease agreement before we inpose a late payment fee of 5%. Can someone offer me an intelligent answer with regards to this?
If not thank you for your attention.

For example, just this past week on the 21rst the mother of the house came to our home with a check from an out of state bank and my wife told her we cannot accept it because of the 10 day hold by the bank. Well, just yesterday someone from that family slid a check under our door ( the same check from the 21rst ) while we were not home. My wife was very specific with the mother of that family.

ARE THEY CONSIDERED LATE AS OF 12:01 ON THE 12TH DAY OF THE MONTH? THIS IS THE DAY THAT IS SPECIFIED AS RENT DUE AS PER OUR LEASE AGREEMENT OR CAN WE NOT SAY THEY ARE LATE UNTIL AFTER THE 15 DAYS HAS EXPIRED ( WHICH WITH THE BANK HOLDING OF 10 DAYS ALWAYS PUTS THEM LATE EVEN IF THEY PAY PRIOR TO THE 15 DAYS AFTER THE 12TH ).


I would appreciate any intelligent advice.

 

[zappy]

and the bank holds the check for 10 days,


This is YOUR PROBLEM, YOU need to take action my dear and go to YOUR bank and apply for Overdraft checking.... If you have good credit they will give it to you and you can cash the cash immediately.

Think of it as a floating loan, you depsoit say $1000 the bank floats you the $1000 till the check clears, if you have NO money in the bank the bank will just charge you interest for the days you are "overdrawn" then if the check bounces they charge you a bounced check fee plus you keep paying interest on the $1000 which now becomes a LOAN between you and your bank.

See this is not a problem.

You need to get YOUR finances in order...so go take some action on this

 

[calltoaction4u]

The bank will not consider a loan on an out of state check! I ( WE ) have our finances are in order. That is not the issue here. We have tenants who feel they can take advantage of good people. We have been very kind and generous to these people.

Obviously you are not in a position to offer good advice. We DID NOT go into agreement with them to be a bank, It is not up to us to arrange anything with our bank. We are not in financial trouble!!!! We have a $security deposit to subtract the 5% each month they are late with their rent. THAT IS NOT THE ISSUE! We are being taken advantage of by "lowlives". Our next step is to serve them with a certified letter, letting them know that we will not continue to carry them.

I thank you for your advice, however, you need to look at your finances "zappy" and quit giving "crappy" advice. I do not think that you would want to pay interest on money to carry tenants.

Please understand that this site IS NOT for people like you who sit behind a computer acting like an idiot.

I apologize to all of you who truly use this site as a benefit. I certainly did not intend to reply to this "person", however, sometimes you just have to try to educate "people" like this.

 

[zappy]

We are being taken advantage of by "lowlives".

No you are not, you do not have overdraft checking which would solve the problem.


--------- The bank will not consider a loan on an out of state check!

Funny that Citibank cashes my $2000 out of state checks no problem, on the spot, becuse I have overdraft checking and if its a bad check then i automatically have a loan with the bank for $2000 which i have to pay off each month with interest!!

You need to get off your butt and go to your bank in the morning and ASK questions and APPLY for overdraft checking.......then when you deposit the check you will have immediate access to the funds..

Why is this a hard concept for you to understand?

 

[call_to_action4]

HELLP FROM ACORN

Hello calltoaction4

I hope you don't mind the fact that I have a similar nickname. You are correct; WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO PAY INTEREST ON YOUR MONEY,,, THERE IS no reason for you to get overdraft protection, you are the landlord here. I practice law in the state of michigan and I'm not too sure if the laws are similar. Here in Michigan, you could begin eviction proceedings due to the fact that you have made them aware that there is a problem and they still continue playing this immature game.

I think that the advice from this zappy person is very poor advice. AGAIN. WHY WOULD ANYONE IN THERE RIGHT MIND PAY INTEREST ON THEIR MONEY.. ESPECIALLY WHEN IT IS NO NECESSARY.


Best of luck my friend.

 

[zappy]

What a buch of dum dums we have here. call to actions....

You dont pay interest on your money dummies...

It is a line of credit which is used to cover the check till it is made good, if its NOT made good THEN you get charged interest, plus check bouncing fees.

dont you as a lawyer know anything?

Get the damn overdraft checking and stop this nonsense.

 

[CAGuy25]

Just write up an addendum to the lease (verify that you can do an addendum to the lease), and specify that only Money Orders, Cash, or Local checks will be accepted, if any form is used the money will be due at least 2 weeks prior to it's normal due date. Until you do this, they are within their rights because they are giving you the check, regardless of how long it takes your bank to give you use of the funds.

Just for clarity, do you give them until the 15th of each month, or 15 days, you state 15 days multiple times, but if the rent is due on the 12th, technically you are giving them 3 extra days, if it were 15 days, you'd be giving them until the 27th.

 

[CA. Landlady]

Granted you give them until the 15th day before a late fee is imposed but according to the written lease when is the rent due date?

 

[call_to_action4]

The rent is actually due on the 12TH of each month.

 

[zappy]

Its 10 am Tuesday call to action4, why havent you gone to YOUR BANK and appiled for overdraft checking by now, instead of wasting time posting?

 

[call_to_action4]

Never waste time

Zappy,


I hope you are sincere in your advice. I did, in fact, meet with the bank President yesterday, Monday, January 27, 2003 at 9:00am.
They ( the bank ) has a policy of putting a 6 ( business ) day hold on any checks that are written from an out of state bank. She raised a very good point during our conversation. Why haven't they ( tenants ) transferred their funds to a local bank in the past 5 months. They have had their address changed on the checks. We do have overdraft protection in place, however, that isn't the issue here. The rent is DUE ON THE 12TH OF EVERY MONTH. We were kind enough to give them a 15 day grace period before we imposed a 5% late fee. Why is it so hard to give us the out of state check sooner, so there are no issues of a late charge?


I have been a member of this site for some time and it seems a good idea to post various issues so we all can learn from one another. I feel it is important to take the issues at hand to the public so we are able to teach one another.

Again, I sincerely hope you are sincere in your posts and welcome your imput, however, we will not always agree.


Regards

 

[zappy]

Yes I am sincere, and Yes I have citibank, and yes i have $2500 in overdraft checking, that makes my funds available immidiatly. thats what it is for....

Two, the tenants are not breaking your lease, they are pushing its limits to the edge, but they have not gone over it.

Three, Now you have some options, find a new bank that wont put a hold on the checks, do not renew their lease...or

If you do renew the lease make sure you make the changes You want in it , like a 5 day grace period before the 5% late fee Instead of 15 days..., and the rent cannot be on an out of state check.

Once it is in the lease and they signed it, THEN you would have a reason to evict them for breaking the lease.

The overdraft checking is FOR YOUR PROTECTION, so just in case the check bounced YOU would be covered from having other bounced check charges on the bills you wrote out...

You must do this as a PROFESSIONAL landlord...

My Girlfirend bounced a rent check once, why? becuase she changed banks from Chase to Citibank, and the new checks she got were EXACTLY the same style and printing as the old bank. The landlord had a good laugh over that but we still paid the $30 check fee....

 

[CA. Landlady]

These people must not care if you do not renew their lease nor what kind of rental reference they will receive.

Anyway, I'm thinking you should contact a local attorney about a couple of things. First of all, I would phone a couple more banks in the area and see if they have the same policy as your current banking institution. Then, if all the banks do, I would ask my attorney if I could consider them as giving me a non-negotiable instrument since the banks in the area will not release funds for XX number of days. Secondly, I would also call their bank the day they submit the check for merchant verification. If the funds were not available, I would make a copy of the check and hand it back to them and serve them a state specific pay or quit at the same time. I believe it's a 5-day in MI. but I can't remember and I'm not looking up your state civil codes ( in CA., it's a 3-day). Also, if the funds are not available and you must hand back their check and they write you another when funds are available the rent will be late. Thus, late fee is charged.