Posted by Dave=WA on September 11, 2003 at 02:32:49:
Maybe he would net lease the park to you with an option to buy.
Enforcing late fees - Posted by Philip
Posted by Philip on September 10, 2003 at 22:01:09:
How do you make folks pay the late fees? One park owner told me it was a waste of time to try.
Philip
Getting late fees paid??? - Posted by Kyle WY
Posted by Kyle WY on September 11, 2003 at 11:58:15:
Every one has talked about what they charge, but only a couple have touched on how they collect.
I am curious, is it better to refuses there payment and tell them that they have late fees, and you won?t take anything accept for FULL payment including late fees?
Or should you take there payment and bill them for the late fees? Or add the fees to the next months rent?
Is there a better way that I?m not thinking about?
How do all you pros do it?
Thank, Kyle
Re: Enforcing late fees - Posted by Steve-WA
Posted by Steve-WA on September 11, 2003 at 09:38:19:
Philip, et al:
There is a lot of discussion of how much I charge, how I receive the $, etc.
Bottom line, if you have questions about that, go back to DOW. Tried and true, it works. With advice on late fees and everything else.
To your root question, “How do you make folks pay . . .”, I ask you:
How do you make them pay their note payment?
Do the same thing.
If you follow the published example, and the advice of others below, include a sentence in the note that says all late fees become part of the payment, etc.
Then collect - or evict - or bribe - accordingly.
Don’t be a nice man, you won’t long be a businessman.
Black & white. Period.
Re: Consistently if you are smart… - Posted by Greg Meade
Posted by Greg Meade on September 11, 2003 at 06:31:52:
Went to court over an eviction in TX and judge forgave all late fees in judgement because the evictee showed I sometimes waived late fees for other tenants (and him). Was told there was no consistency in exercise of fees and were threfore arbitrary and capricious! I now am a demon on this…if you are late you pay, even if related to me!
Re: Enforcing late fees - Posted by Dave-WA
Posted by Dave-WA on September 11, 2003 at 24:56:32:
Well, we know who trained who at that park.
Re: Enforcing late fees - Posted by Joe C. (AR)
Posted by Joe C. (AR) on September 11, 2003 at 24:37:32:
On park lot rent, I price the “rent” $15 higher, then give $15 discount if paid by the 5th. for instance the lot rent is $165.00, pay by the 5th and get a $15 discount. Late fees are $2.00/day after the 5th, until paid in full.
On notes I charge $20 on the 5th, plus $2.00/day thereafter, until paid in full.
My contracts state that payments are applied to late fees first, then to rents, so the fees keep piling up if they don’t pay in full.
If someone consistanly pays on time, then is a couple of days late one time, I let them slide but remind them of the discount and fees. After one time I charge them the fees.
I have one guy who is consistantly late. I tell him that I hate to keep taking the fees (which I do) but he leaves me no alternative. He told me that if he pays me on time someone else gets paid late and they charge him late fees, so he’s going to pay some late fees anyway. I guess I’ll just have to put up with him skyrocketing my yield that way. I’ve also warned him that if he goes over 30 days late, I’ll be forced to evict him. So far, so good.
Joe C. (AR)
Re: Enforcing late fees - Posted by Bob(OH)
Posted by Bob(OH) on September 10, 2003 at 23:25:07:
You will have to check for your state but…the way we do things here is, If the rent payment is not received on the due date (5th), it’s late. A $20 late fee is charged. If the rent check is received on the sixth and the $20 is not included, we return the check back to them and let them know that we cannot except partial payment and they must include the late fees. If the rent is not paid in full, on the 15th of the month, they get a 3 day eviction notice for nonpayment of rent.
Another way that was mentioned here and I think is a good idea is to set a late fee at something like $15 and then add one dollar a day for every day it is late. This is good because some people figure that once they’re late, they’re late and they can wait another week or so. If you add a dollar a day, it’s costing them more and more.
Thats just a couple ideas that work the best. Put it in your contract or lease that way nobody has to get into a urinating contest about rent or fees or due dates.
Most judges can only see black and white.
Bob(OH)
Re: Enforcing late fees - Posted by Marty (MO)
Posted by Marty (MO) on September 10, 2003 at 22:40:08:
A pm just showed us his trick- word the contract that the payment must be postmarked by the due date. you keep the envelope as proof that the payment was late. Call or send them notice of what is owed. If they don’t promptly pay, just tack it on to the end of the note. They have to eventually pay for you to release the title.
Re: Enforcing late fees - Posted by Philip
Posted by Philip on September 11, 2003 at 13:27:51:
Durn it! I just re-read that DOW, but apparently not close enough! I just wanted to get an overall idea straight in my head again. I didn’t pay attention in detail to that section! If there had been a test I probably would have gotten a 70%…oh, well…someone has to keep the averages down!
Thanks,
Philip
Re: Consistently if you are smart… - Posted by Dave-WA
Posted by Dave-WA on September 11, 2003 at 09:26:47:
I could see other problems with not being consistant with collecting late fees.
Suppose you collect a late fee from a black resident but not a white one. Or young/old, male/female, straight/gay, fat/thin, nice looking/not nice looking ect.
I plan to use good guy/bad guy on them when they come to me with their excuses why they can’t pay.
“I would let you skip the late payment this time if it were up to me but my lawyer won’t let me.”
Re: Consistently if you are smart… - Posted by Philip
Posted by Philip on September 11, 2003 at 06:57:47:
That is very important information. Thank you very much.
Philip
Re: Enforcing late fees - Posted by Mike
Posted by Mike on September 11, 2003 at 05:54:19:
LOL…i agree with Dave…my tenants better pay their late fees… the way i have my late fees set up is…rent is due on the 1st…i give them till the 5th with out any late charge…after the 5th …its $25 plus $5 a day after until the balance is paid in full… that will make them pay alot faster… ofcourse it took sevral eviction to make them realize i was playing around…make sure they know who set the rule in your park.
Re: Enforcing late fees - Posted by Philip
Posted by Philip on September 11, 2003 at 01:41:10:
True. His was the park I almost bought. I think he was tired of any effort and still is tired. Not tired enough to carry a second note though!
Philip
Re: Enforcing late fees - Posted by Mike
Posted by Mike on September 11, 2003 at 06:00:44:
Believed me i think some tenants could careless if they pay late fees every month…hey find with me…we get charged if were late on our notes…so why wont they.
Re: Enforcing late fees - Posted by Philip
Posted by Philip on September 11, 2003 at 01:38:32:
Thank you,
Philip
Re: Enforcing late fees - Posted by Philip
Posted by Philip on September 11, 2003 at 01:31:13:
makes sense to me. I wonder if he charges the $2 per day…forever…just kidding.
Philip