A.D. Cantelmo Property Management
Our Business is Property Management in Orange County California
When should I worry about my Tenant paying late?
The question about late rent payment is very important and
needs to be addressed prior to a Tenant moving into a property. The problem
starts with a Tenants first late payment. If a Tenant is a good payer and is on
time every month but has a onetime situation, that can easily be addressed with
a phone call. It is not out of line to give a good payer a break and understand
that they may have had an unusual problem for one month, but if one month turns
into two, then an uneasy pattern starts to happen.
That uneasy Feeling
Every Property Manager
understands that sinking feeling in their stomach when that good paying Tenant
becomes a problem.
The question is how quickly should a Landlord or Property
Manager Act and the answer is not always as easy as it may seem.
For a
Landlord, The thought of eviction is something that they never want to think
about. It is the cost and the process of an eviction that keeps many people away from owning
investment property. But a Landlord has to look at a late paying Tenant just as
an owner of a hardware store looks at someone taking a wrench without paying
for it. If the problem is not addressed quickly then the loss of income will
hurt the bottom line.
The difference between a Landlord and a Property
Management company is that a Landlord has a more emotional attachment to the
property and sometimes to the Tenant, but the Management company has no emotion
to the situation, it is only business.
Get the emotion out of it
For the Landlord they may take a much longer time to start
the process of removing a Tenant then a Property Management Company and this
can cost much more than if the process is started as soon as the first hint of
a problem shows up.
Here is a good rule to follow, be consistent. If a Tenant
pays late, give them a phone call to remind them of the problem. If the phone
call does not do the trick then give them a 3 day notice to pay rent or quit.
Once you do that, then you have to be willing to go the distance at that point
and I would recommend contacting a good eviction attorney. I use Duringer Law. Yes you could try
and do the process on your own, to save some money, but if you don’t do everything
right, it will cost you more than the attorney.
The process time
Let’s look at the Calendar, and I am going to give you my
experience in the process.
The rent is due on the 1st and late on the 3rd.
No rent has come in on the 4th, so you call the Tenant and now it is
the 5th with no rent. On the 6th you issue a 3 day
notice, by the 10th no rent, so you get the attorney involved and
you get a court date 3 weeks later. You go to court and win the case but the
Judge gives them 2 weeks to vacate, so you are now 7 weeks without rent and of
course all the attorney fees. That is a scenario that takes 7 weeks and you
started the process quickly. The longer you take, the more money you lose, so
you can see why starting quickly is important.
To answer the question in the title of the article, “When
should I worry about my Tenant paying late?” The answer is, as soon as it is
Late!
A.D. Cantelmo Property
Management Specializes in Property Management in Orange County
Ca.
