Tenant not paying the late fee, then the rent

Tenant not paying the late fee, then the rent by Anonymous (MN) on July 4, 2012 @00:33

The lease says $60 late fee after the first of the month. The rent was not received until June 8th. When asked about paying the late fee, the tenant said he would call and discuss on June 12th. Not receiving the call, I called him on June 12 but he said he was taking an exam. We briefly talked on the phone and he said he would pay the $60 on June 16th, which was postponed later to June 17th. When we did meet on the 17th, he proposed to pay June's late fee at the beginning of July together with July's rent.

I sent him a certified letter on June 23rd asking that June's late fee and July's rent be paid in full by July 3rd. He called on July 2nd and said he would deposit money into my bank account on the 3rd. By early evening on the 3rd, still no payment was made. I then drove to my rental property and handed a letter to his mother-in-law (he was not there at the time) asking for the rent be paid in full by the 6th before starting the eviction process.

The tenant later called and said he would like to terminate the lease, because he felt pressured by my asking about his rental payment and is not comfortable working with me anymore. He claimed I did not have the right to come knocking on his door and embarrassing him in front of his relative. Now he decides not to make any payment and says he will see me in court after I start the eviction process. He accused me of harassing him by repeatedly asking for the rent he owed and even claims I am responsible for his failing the exam when I called him on June 12th.

Now I am faced with going through the eviction process and fighting his harassment charge. Any comments on this case or suggestions on what I could have done better will be appreciated.

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Re: Tenant not paying the late fee, then the rent by Bryan (Ia) on July 4, 2012 @01:17	[ Reply ]

You did everything correctly. You have no worry about the harassment claim. What can you do? Evict and laugh.

Re: Tenant not paying the late fee, then the rent by Anonymous on July 4, 2012 @01:21	[ Reply ]

You did everything right. He is looking for an excuse to not pay you. Does his MIL live there too?

Re: Tenant not paying the late fee, then the rent by Micah on July 4, 2012 @06:03	[ Reply ]

Send him the Crusher letter with the ramifications of eviction listed for him!

Re: Tenant not paying the late fee, then the rent by Billy on July 4, 2012 @06:35	[ Reply ]

Well I can see he is not confortable with a landlord who wants to be paid! He is looking for someone who doesn't care about the rent.

Re: Tenant not paying the late fee, then the rent by Katiekate (New York) on July 4, 2012 @06:42	[ Reply ]

I cannot even begin to count the number of times I have had someone threaten to sue me. The threat is nothing more than an attempt to scare you into doing what the tenant wants. First..I never allow the tenant to direct deposit. It makes life difficult if you have to evict. If you accept partial payment you have to start the process over from the beginning, and the deposit is the acceptance. Stop letting tenants do that!! Next...always deduct payments from the oldest part of the bill first...so if late fees are owed from last month, those are paid first then any remainder is applied against the rent owed this month..making it the rent that wasn't paid in full. Finally...sending the crusher letter with a 3 day quit or pay notice will usually straighten out the tenant. There will not be any harassment charge. It is a ploy to scare you off. If, by some miracle this idiot does try to bring a lawsuit it would be only in small claims..(no lawyer will take such a case)...and you should treat it as entertainment, nothing more.

Re: Tenant not paying the late fee, then the rent

Re: Tenant not paying the late fee, then the rent by Patse (IL) on July 4, 2012 @10:14	[ Reply ]

just evict ruin his credit be sure eviction papers state (T'sname) et.al. do this with a lawyer - don't try yourself get eviction ruling and back order of all rent owed (late fees wil not be processed by the court) Do NOT include late fees on eviction (judge will throw the whole thing out and you will have to start over) if damages after they are all evicted; process through courts on another suit destroy his credit and he will learn a valuable lesson on life and responsibility

Re: Tenant not paying the late fee, then the rent

Re: Tenant not paying the late fee, then the rent by Anonymous on July 4, 2012 @15:01	[ Reply ]

The renter text messaged me today and said he would start a procedure to cancel the lease on Thursday (July 5). He claimed ��I have never been humiliated the way you did to me. You people spend your time harassing us.�� I am curious as to what ��procedure�� he is thinking about. I do not feel asking for the late fee several times or drop a letter to him in person constitutes harassment.

Re: Tenant not paying the late fee, then the rent

Re: Tenant not paying the late fee, then the rent by Micah on July 5, 2012 @09:35	[ Reply ]

I do not accept partial payments. The late fees are part of the rent. If I am handed a partial payment then I return it and tell them to pay the whole thing. Partial payments delay eviction proceedings...

Re: Tenant not paying the late fee, then the rent

Re: Tenant not paying the late fee, then the rent by monica (Wa) on July 10, 2012 @13:21	[ Reply ]

You are NOT allowed to disclose a debt to a third party, such as a mother in law in an attempt to collect a debt, which is what rent is. This is from the FDCAP . FDCPA violations for contacting third parties A debt collector discloses to a third party (a neighbor or relative) that you have a debt. This is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). A collector, by law, is NOT allowed to do this. A debt collector is allowed to make one reasonable phone call to a neighbor or a relative in an attempt to locate you by confirming or correcting location information. However, the debt collector is not supposed to disclose any information about the debt that you owe. The debt collector is also not supposed to ask a third party to �pass a message on to you�. Once the debt collector contacts the third party in an attempt to confirm or correct your location information, they must stop. The debt collector is NOT allowed to contact the third party more than once UNLESS requested to do so. See a debt collector thinks that this is not a big deal, and might tell you that if you would have paid your bill, this would never have happened. Or the debt collector might get your neighbors and relatives to give you messages about this debt to try and embarrass you into paying them. This is wrong, and completely against the law. It can be very humiliating and embarrassing for a person to find out that a debt collector has unlawfully given out your private �debt� information. Debt collectors have also been known to contact a consumer�s employer. Again, they are allowed to contact you at work UNLESS you tell them not to you and send them a written letter stating the same. This is Federal law and does not vary from state to state.