Do you make a courtesy call ? - Landlord Forum thread

Do you make a courtesy call ? by Anonymous on July 2, 2012 @19:35

Lately, I know one of my tenants (he's been there over 2 years, clean, quiet, has paid on time) is having money problems and money is super tight for him.

Rent is late on the 3rd of the month & that generates a late fee.

We live close so he drops off his rent check in our mailbox. In May, on the 2nd, we checked our mailbox before we went to bed and no rent check. When we woke up on the 3rd, no rent check. When we returned from afternoon errands, we had a rent check. We decided to ignore that his rent was officially late and cut him some slack. In June, we received the rent check in the early evening of the 2nd.

It's getting on to be the early evening now, on the 2nd. Should I just give a courtesy call and remind him that rent is due today, we haven't received it yet, and if we get it tomorrow, it will generate a late fee, or should we just hope? If we make the courtesy phone call, is there any other way to word our message? (be nice, jake!)

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Re: Do you make a courtesy call ? by Joan (OH) on July 2, 2012 @21:40	[ Reply ]

We only have one building with 4 units. Most tenants pay on time. If we haven't received rent by early evening on the due date from a tenant that is normally regular, I usually make a courtesy call, just to remind them we haven't received the rent yet and remind them if they can get it to us today (we are also close and they usually drop it off), they can avoid the late fee. However, if I have a tenant who seems to be doing this too often, I will let it go until it is late and then call and remind then that the owe the rent, plus the late fee. The few times I have had to do this, they don't do it again. Once a tenant of several years was late and I forgot to call and I did waive the late fee, but I told her I was doing so just this once so she realized we were doing her a favor and waiving the late fee wasn't going to be a regular occurrance.

Re: Do you make a courtesy call ? by Jack Klein (NY) on July 2, 2012 @22:43	[ Reply ]

We used to do a courtesy call before sending a late notice but learned that for most tenants the written late notice with late fee has more of a positiuve impact. A personal call is nice when you have one or 2 rentals and like that down home communication with them, but when you have a large # of tenants, written notices are your best best.

Re: Do you make a courtesy call ? by Anonymous on July 2, 2012 @23:57	[ Reply ]

Occasionally I get walked all over but for the most part I have good, long lasting tenants because I cut them slack when necessary. Their checks are mailed to me and must be postmarked by the 1st of each month. If not, I start counting and keep track of the # of days late in my excel file. I do not collect late fees. Once in a while I have a tenant who has a problem and will be late. If they call and make arrangements, they can be late to the date that they say they will mail the check with no penalty. If things go badly when they move out, I tally up all the late fees (at $3 per day as allowed by PA state law) and take it out of their security deposit. If all goes well when they move out, I don't take out the late fees. A lot of people get paid on Fridays and need those few days to make the rent. working with people has helped me keep otherwise good tenants for years. So, no I don't make the call. If they're going to be late, they need to call me and work something out. I've let people go 15 days late and then they caught up and all was well. I'm sure the majority of people here would disagree with me.

Re: Do you make a courtesy call ?

Re: Do you make a courtesy call ? by jannie (IL) on July 3, 2012 @08:43	[ Reply ]

I think it depnds on the number of units you have. I have reminded tenants and one I had to remind more often. The other rental T paid right on time, but last time when it appeared like it was going to be late I e-mailed a reminder. This month they were on time, but asked to do an automatic payment from their account into ours. I think they're finding that they may be travelling and don't want to have to worry about mailing the rent.