Please e-mail us if you have any questions or would like to add or share any material / information. Have a great month!
John Nuzzolese
John@theLPA.com

What do I do when...

the tenant won't pay the late fees?

Have you ever had a tenant who pays the rent late, but always ignores the late fee? How about when you repeatedly send late fee notices? Are those notices ignored too? Don't you just hate that?

You are not alone. I know the feeling. Many, many landlords experience this frustration.

Because the tenant pays the rent, though late, most landlords are willing to let it slide. You may be tempted to look the other way, reasoning that the tenant isn't so bad. "At least the rent is getting paid", you might think. Why rock the boat, right? "At least I'm not dealing with an eviction... yet."

You might also be thinking that you can collect these unpaid charges from the security deposit. Depending on the particular situation, that might be an excellent idea.

You may be able to stall the inevitable, but sooner or later, things are going to come to a head. Eventually, late charges will accumulate to a level higher than the security deposit. the tenant will

Is there a better way?

The LPA Lease provides that late charges are classified as "added rent", which means you may legally collect those late fees in all the same ways you are allowed to collect rent, because "added rent" is rent.

In light of the fact that we have "Added Rent" explained in our lease, we have also updated the lease to include another hard hitting sentence. Copy and paste this into your lease if you don't already have the most recently updated copy of The LPA Lease.

<!-- Start Copying here --> Late charges, attorney’s fees and any expenses related to the enforcement of this lease shall be classified as "additional rent" or "added rent". Lease violation penalty fees shall be classified as additional rent. This additional rent is payable as rent, together with the next monthly rent due. If tenant fails to pay additional rent on time, Owner shall have the same rights against tenant as if it were a failure to pay rent. Owner may elect to apply monies received towards past due added rent, paying the oldest charges first. <!-- End Copying here -->

What does this mean? It means that you have the right to apply the tenant's next payment towards past due unpaid late fees.

If you choose to apply your tenant’s current rent payment towards past due balances, keep in mind that this action will obviously offset the current month’s rent to a deficiency. The amount of the past due charges will determine how far delinquent the tenant’s current rent will now be. With that in mind, you may decide not to pay off the full amount of past due charges in one shot, but over a few months.

Once you have paid past due charges out of the latest rent payment, you should inform the tenant of exactly how the rent was applied and what the balance now due is. I have done this using the Account Status Notification or the Rent Deficiency Notice .

This method of late fee collection can be a delicate one if your intention is to preserve the tenancy. It can also be a propellant to an eviction, since most judges will be more apt to evict for unpaid rent rather than unpaid late fees.

The Landlord Protection Agency® is proud to introduce John Reno, Esq., a highly experienced Landlord - Tenant attorney based on Long Island, NY.

If you have a landlord tenant problem you'd like to ask a question about, please feel free to e-mail me your question.

Dear Mr. Reno:
My tenant moved in the apartment in September. He paid one month security ($425.00) and signed lease to pay $425 monthly rent on the first of each month. He has since paid $380. on October 16th, $220. on December 10th, and $120. on January 22nd of this year. He is and has been in jail on illegal drug charges since February 6th. He is now owes me $1,830. Can I have him evicted and can I hold the security deposit as one month's rent since he violated his lease agreement?
Thank you for your reply.
Louise J, Philadelphia, PA

A:
Yes you can! What are you waiting for?

Dear Mr. Reno:
I have just received my judgment from the court for an eviction of my tenants. Now they have the right to an appeal. It states they can appeal “on a question of law” to the Supreme Court. What does this mean?

A:
That means they can have a re-trial of the facts of the case. They can only appeal if they can show that the judge misinterpeted the law or misapplied the law. Tenants rarely appeal. It's very expensive.

Learn the Landlord-Tenant Rules!

As an investor working with tenants, you should be very familiar with the laws of your business. These laws apply whether you own a property and rent it, or you do a "sandwich" lease.

An eviction proceeding, usually called a "summary proceeding" or "unlawful detainer" proceeding, is a lawsuit to obtain a court order to remove the tenant. It is not lawful to physically or constructively remove the tenant from the premises. No matter how upset you are, don't even consider changing the locks, shutting off the power or taking the front door out for "repairs."

Before you can commence the proceeding, you need to terminate the tenancy. You do this by serving notice on the tenant as required by your state law. For nonpayment of rent, the notice is typically three to five days. If the tenant has not paid the rent in full or moved out after that time....

click for Bill's full article...

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"I can't pay the rent because I'm across town and am out of checks"
Me: You have to tomorrow before I issue pay or quit.
Tenant: All you care about is the money, don't you?
Me: You have till tomorrow. - Joe S., CO

I returned a call to my tenant who has not paid rent in three months because he said he had some great news for me. When I asked him if the great news was that he could pay the past due rents, he said, "Oh no, not that, I just wanted to let you know that in a couple more weeks he was applying for unemployment, and that his wife was pregnant, again." - He has no idea at this time when he can pay, or how much. However, I know the eviction court date is in 2 weeks. - Brian, Gardner, Massachusetts

"I'm sorry we don't have it. My husband needed the money for his defense attorney." From what we hear, he was accused of stealing from his job. - Tom C., NY

"The impossible is often the untried." - Jim Goodwin

"You don't save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow it may rain." - Leo Durocher

"How much did your last tenant problem cost you?"
- John Nuzzolese

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