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When is the rent officially late with grace period
by NJLL (NJ)
on February 5, 2015 @16:55
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I am having trouble finding an answer to this, though it seems like it should be pretty simple. Rent is due on the 1st of the month. My lease has a 5 day grace period before I charge a late fee. If I am to send the tenant a late rent notification, do I have to wait until the end of the grace period or is the rent legally considered late on the 2nd? I have a tenant that has paid late for the past 4 months. Only one of those times has the tenant gone past the grace period though and had to pay the late fee. So is that tenant actually considered to have been late those other months they paid within the grace period? I know if I want to build a case for habitual late payments, I need to notify them each month they are late. So that's my question. Are you officially late after the due date has past or are you late after the grace period has ended? Is there even an answer to this?
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Re: When is the rent officially late with grace period
by Katiekate (New York)
on February 5, 2015 @17:23
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The rent is late officially on the 2nd.
The grace period simply says you will not charge a late fee for some specified number of days....but it is late the day after it should have been paid (2nd)
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Re: When is the rent officially late with grace period
by Garry (Iowa)
on February 5, 2015 @17:47
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If rent is due on the 1st, then it's OFFICIALLY late at 12:01 am on the 2nd of every month. However, with your 5 day grace period, they do not owe you a late fee unless their rent comes to you after 12:01 am on the 7th day of each month. You should shorten your grace period to 1 or 2 days. And since they would owe you the same amount of rent on the 6th as they do on the first, some judges around the country will not entertain your 3 day notice to pay rent or quit, unless it was dated on the 7th of the month. That may not be right in the LLs eyes, but a tenant-friendly judge/state could rule that way.
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Re: When is the rent officially late with grace period
by Wilford
on February 5, 2015 @19:28
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From your experience, you can see that grace periods only serve to give permission for tenants to pay late. If you have a grace period, the payments made within that period are not late but rather on time. At least this is the way the tenant sees it. Then you are left to do the math and to try to figure is the late payment is really late.
Most landlords will not offer a grace period in their lease. They simply and swiftly post a pay or quit notice followed by an eviction is the tenant does not know how to pay on time. Late paying tenants go on to become no paying tenants.
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Re: When is the rent officially late with grace period
by Bill
on February 5, 2015 @19:38
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What problem are you trying to solve? Your lease has a grace period of five days, so expect tenants to pay up to the last day before late fees apply. Are you short on operating funds that you need payment quicker? Then why do you have a grace period? Just eliminate the grace period when lease is up for renewal and charge a late fee.
Most landlords wait until the grace period ends before sending notices for late or non payment.
Are you just looking for a reason to get rid of this tenant?
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Re: When is the rent officially late with grace period
by anon
on February 5, 2015 @23:51
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you give them until the end of the 6th day to be on time. day 7 the rent is late and you can invoice for a late fee. your tenant has only been late once. you do not have to give a grace period. if you want late the 1st, give no grace period in future leases and modify current lease terms when you legally can.
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Re: When is the rent officially late with grace period
by CA/OR
on February 6, 2015 @00:34
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I'm in line with Katiekate.
Some states control/restrict the "grace period" for when a LL can charge a late fee. Rent is DUE on a stated date (as are mortgage payments, utility bills, etc.); payment received AFTER that date is considered late. The fact that you cannot charge them a late fee until X-days does not negate the fact that they were late in payment.
I believe renters who intentionally delay payment of rent until the last moment are problematic.... and it speaks to their integrity on other issues.
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Re: When is the rent officially late with grace period
by Anonymous
on February 6, 2015 @09:53
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Rent is due on the 1st and late on the 2nd. A grace period simply allows the tenant to pay late without penalty. On the 6th (assuming your 5-day grace period) the tenant incurs a late fee.
Personally, I don't allow a grace period because invariably every tenant will pay on the last day of the grace period every month. Rent is due on the 1st, late on the 2nd and late fee applies on the 2nd. Easy-peasy. There is never a circumstance which the tenant cannot anticipate and prepare for, including the 1st landing on a holiday or weekend. With ATMs, electronic banking, etc., there is no reason a person cannot pay on the 1st consistently (but somehow can pay on the 5th consistently!).
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Re: When is the rent officially late with grace period
by Stephen (WA - Washington)
on February 7, 2015 @13:28
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As I read the original question and discussion I see several items:
- how common are 'grace periods'?
- what action do we LLs take when the payment is during the 'grace period'?
- how do we report to future LLs when rent is after the due date but within the 'grace period"?
Here are my comments.
- how common are 'grace periods'?
I have a grace period through the 5th of the month. Other LLs I have spoken with locally also do this. I don't know how common it is nation-wide but it may be more of a regional thing. I typically have all payments by the 4th with some having arrived prior to the 1st. I view the grace period as taking into consideration the situation where the tenant receives his/her pay on the last day of the month or even the 1st of the month. They then need to deposit it into their bank. They can't write a check and mail it to arrive by the 1st unless they write the check before they have the money - and then hope that my cashing their check will be after their deposit.
- what action do we LLs take when the payment is during the 'grace period'?
I count the payment as on time when received by the 5th. I do not take Katiekate's action of posting a pay or quit on the 2nd. She says that helps when you file for eviction. I suspect that the difference between us is the behavior we have gotten from tenants. I have never filed for eviction (although I should have in at least one case). So, for me, the trouble of filing a pay or quit during the grace period has not been worthwhile. I strongly believe that Katiekate has had the opposite experience. This makes me feel lucky.
- how do we report to future LLs when rent is received after the due date but within the 'grace period"?
As mentioned above, I count and report the payment as on time if received during the grace period.
So, NJLL what is your goal and what behaviors are you getting from your tenants? My goal is to receive the rents in the 1st week of the month. The late fees are to encourage this behavior. The due dates of my mortgage payments were set up to take into account that my rents wouldn't be deposited until the end of the 1st week. My tenants have typically met those requirements. I don't recall ever receiving late fees two months in a row from the same tenant.
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Re: When is the rent officially late with grace period
by Heather (OR)
on November 27, 2017 @13:05
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Why have a grace period if you're going to complain about people utelising it, slum lord? Times are tough. The economy is in the toilet and it's near impossible to get into an apartment before your mid 20's these days. Eliminate the grace period or deal with tenants utelising it.
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Re: When is the rent officially late with grace period
by Anonymous
on December 11, 2017 @13:11
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From what I've read the rent is technically late on the due date if it is not paid on that day...
So ...,if rent is due on the 1st, and is not paid by the tenant at close of business on that day, then you count the 1st as being a late day thus being the 1st day of the Grace period.
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Re: When is the rent officially late with grace period
by Ashley (Nevada )
on May 4, 2018 @19:48
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You basically answered your own question dude. You have a grace period. So it's not late because you can NOT legally serve an eviction to them till the 6th NOT the 7th as everyone so politely keeps saying. However almost EVERY single landlord I know DOES have a grace period the reason being that your paycheck may fall a few days after the actual rent is due which no tenant can control.the grace period allows for them to turn in their rent without any consequences due to their pay period. I do not know of any landlords that do not have this in place. It prevents them from having to file an eviction notice and go through that process and it prevents your tentant from having to be late through no fault of their own. That's why it was put in place in the first place. You also can NOT shorten your grace period in the middle of their lease. If that's what was signed then you are stuck with it till the next lease. It sounds like to me YOU either can not afford for them to pay past the first in which case if you're renting a home you should probably just move back onto the home and pay the mortgage yourself or the next tentant to move in do not allow a grace period however you will find it hard to rent the home if you do that. Mostly because they can rent from someone else who CAN afford for the grace period to be in place or rent an apartment who also allows it. My suggestion would be find another reason to move them out because thats what this really sounds like. No judge is going to take your side on this because you allowed for the grace period and now are angry because they are using the grace period? That's insane. They aren't late except for one time and I'm sure you are causing an uncomfortable situation for them for no reason because you're nit picking on something they are allowed to do. That's the worst kind of landlord! So long as they aren't paying you late or giving partial payments you should have NO complaints. They sound like they are trying to stay within the grace period and make sure to pay you on time within that period. So be a decent person and abide by the time you gave them.
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