Unfair Late Fee - Tenants Together: Fill & Download for Free

This answer won’t make me very popular among renters, but the truth is that I offer no grace period whatsoever. None of my tenants are poor and my units aren’t cheap, so it’s my belief that any adult who is competent enough to live alone should be competent enough to know that rent is due on the 1st of each month – and in the event that they genuinely can’t pay, I’d have to order them to vacate anyway.Grace periods are fairly common and they make a lot of sense for tenants living paycheck to paycheck. Someone in those circumstances could easily need an extra day or two to come up with the rent without it representing any new financial distress that would make the home unaffordable to them, but it’s still just a curtesy that many landlords offer: The rent is due on the date listed in the lease, and it’s up to us if/when we’ll accept payment after that and what fees we’ll attach. I don’t even accept applicants who don’t make at least four times as much as the rent and have enough savings for three months, and with rents going up to nearly $5,000, there’s no reason why my tenants should need extra time to pay. Back when I owned cheaper units, I didn’t post a notice to vacate until they were three days late, but if my current tenants’ finances have deteriorated to the point where they need three more days to get the money together, it’s safe to say that they can no longer afford the rent.If you’ve already gotten all worked up about how unfair this is, please take a breath and consider that this is explicitly explained to all applicants before they sign a lease. Not only do they need to initial the relevant section and sign the the lease, but we also have a new tenant informational booklet and we verbally state that this clause is not just a rough guideline: Rent absolutely must be paid by the end of day on the 1st, because we post the notice to pay or vacate early on the morning of the second. It’s not that I’m trying to be a dick, but if they don’t pay or leave voluntarily, I’ll need to evict. Unless I post the notice immediately I won’t actually be able to have them removed by force until the very end of the month, by which point it will be too late to get the home ready for someone else by the 1st. You see, I can’t file for eviction until I’ve posted a five day notice and given them a chance to respond, and I don’t receive credit for any time that I gave them as a grace period.This is a business with some fairly complicated financial transactions, and it’s all based on rents being deposited into the accounts at the very start of the month. Admittedly I have (or had, before this eviction moratorium) enough funds in reserve for it not to matter much if I don’t get paid immediately, but it still makes my bookkeeper’s job harder. Besides, I didn’t grow my business by cutting it close to the edge when there was no benefit in it for me, so I insist on timely payment. It’s only fair, because you don’t think that my tenants would tolerate me paying them their deposit back whenever it was convenient for me? No, of course not, they’d raise hell if it went over thirty days.My state is pretty strong on landlord’s rights so I don’t have to give tenants the option to stay if they pay, not once they’re late, but I usually do if it’s the first time and I have no other reason to get rid of them. Because of that, the five day notice I issue on the 2nd usually means that they have what almost amounts to a grace period, as they won’t be sued or evicted if they pay in full before the time is up. I do report all late payments to credit agencies, because that’s the entire point, and I do tack on late fees ($25 for the first late day, $35 for the second, and so on up to $225 total) because of the inconvenience to me and my staff. The only exceptions here are those tenants who contact my office before rent is due to inform us that they’re moving out because they cannot pay, because then I’ll negotiate a fee and payment plan for breaking the lease rather than evict and sue.I offer no grace period, but paying one day late won’t get a good tenant turned out on the street. They will get a written notice posted on their door, they will get a fee, and it could affect their credit, but that’s pretty typical for late payments of any kind. It’s just the only way I can protect myself and avoid having to house nonpaying any longer than I absolutely have to.

We have been representing NRIs for their property Management. I am going to answer from the perspective of NRIs.NRIs are looking to deal rental operational and financial transaction directly with tenant, instead of routing through 3rd person. This gives better satisfaction and returns on investment.NRIs seeks Property management (3rd person) to fill the gap of geographical and time constrain only. Not to handle financial matters, as banking becomes online hence geographical constrain is no barrier.Two major factors, NRIs consider in property management companies if they opt.Cost: Efficient managementTransparent: in operation of property managementCost :Property management being comparative industry in India but cost advantage to NRIs are few,Most property management in India charges multiple tariff to NRIs, I feel such tariff are not realistic and not worth of work, Below are some example.Registration charge: Just to fill some random formUpfront annual fee: When NRI give his/her property itself under control of property management, why do property management charge annul fee for security reason?Monthly service charge: Property management collect the rent from tenant and deduce the service charge and pay balance to NRI as rent.Why can’t this be in other way, where NRI get rent directly from tenant and pay service charge to property management?Brokerage: Charging brokerage for tenant replacement is fair but charging recurring brokerage after every 11 months is not fair. There is no value to pay recurring brokerage for one-time tenant placementRenovation cost: Apart from above recurring brokerage, monthly service charge, charge for renovation as well.NRIs feel above charges are overpriced in market. As a property management company, you should have reasonable control over the tariff impose on NRIs,Transparent in operation:Stop sub-leasing the property of NRIs. This leads to disappointment, frustration and unfair Returns to NRIs,Property management persuade NRIs to sign service agreement, this agreement gives leeway for property management to sub-lease the property on they own will and wishMost property managers are profit motive and avoid screening tenant in legible and documented way, This leads renting to bad tenants like below listed, This indeed affects emotional and financial sentiment of NRIsSmall local businessmen with uncertainty on incomeGangsters, gang of bachelors with no stable income and no decency to maintain propertyLonely aged people, above 70+ years,Big family size or join family, Property is small enough to handle too tenants one unit.Chain smoker and alcoholics. Over the period of time, natural fragrance and appearance of property turns filthyRenting to girlfriend and boyfriend together. Frequent group parting in premiseDrug users and dealers. This is criminal offence and some property manager allow such people due to poor tenant screeningTenant owning multiple big petsEstablishing commercial activity in residential building, Commercial activity in residential building is illegal and most property manager are not aware of it.Foreigner tenant without valid document of passport and letter from local embassyAllowing late-night party with loud musicFinancial sentiment affected by NRIs,If actual rent and security deposit drawn from tenant is not disclosed by property managementAfter a year, if rent increment is not communicated to landlord by property managementTo overcome all the above issue and bring trust in Business, we re-framed our company policy in likes of NRIs.We never ever sub-lease property, NRIs property will be rented directly between NRI and tenant. We just act as co-coordinator to rent property locallyRental agreement will be executed in the name of landlord and tenant. we are a sole witness in agreementAll the financial transaction (security deposit and monthly rent) are done between owner and tenant. No transaction routed through companyWe don’t have recurring monthly service charge like most service providers. We just have one-time charge. Our prices are very affordable and competitive in market.We provide seamless communication and open information between tenant and owner.( we provide as much information about tenant to owner. No hide and seek)We fill the GAP of NRIs geographical and time constrain, we co-ordinate all the local needs of NRIs pertaining to property needs.We provide property management service in Bangalore. To opt for our service, please write to us [email protected] or Whatsapp +91–9742479020Thank you for reading…

Most of the time, they lose everything.My step son just showed up in his “Duct Tape Battleship”, a 30′ RV, that chugged into our back yard and had the front end (literally) fall off. We let him, his girlfriend and dog stay (again) as the repair parts were ordered. We paid for them. (Happy Birthday) Meanwhile, it’s on blocks out in the rain.They refuse to let us even look into the gutted camper. The glance I got into their “$100 homeless shelter” showed me an interior that looked like somebody’s “junk drawer”. Stuff had been spilled onto the floor and pathways kicked aside to allow movement.He works on the docks in San Diego as a deck hand on the fishing boats. This means half the year he has no income, save for what work he can get making boat repairs in the off season. The RV is one giant scatter of tools, food wrappers and supplies.It’s their third RV in two years. (We paid $1000 for their last rolling horror.) It lasted 8 months before it was towed. If they both get work at the same time, the cops inevitably tow off unattended RV’s.They lose all they own each time.Keeping a large dog helps them both mentally and it makes the vehicle “attended” if they are away. The big, lovable but loud Pit Bull makes towing the vehicle a bit more “complex” for the authorities.They’d still take it, though. They would just lose their dog unless they had hundreds of dollars to “bail him out”. The county is broke and they need those fines and fees.They were presented with a 14 year old car that another homeless family was going to abandon when they fled to Texas for work. It’s like “The Grapes of Wrath” in Southern CA these days.Thanks, Gov. Newsom! Your policies serve us well!The Walmart hubcaps we bought them made their little red car look a LOT more presentable and thus less noticed by the cops. One traffic stop and they would have lost it for lack of proper registration and insurance. Thank God that got fixed.All three lived in that little red Chevy after the loss of the RV we bought them. They finally got this one when its elderly owner’s son finally agreed to let his homeless Dad move in with him in Texas, where he too had fled for properly paid work and affordable rent.We paid the bill for their cut off, shattered glass cell phone. Right away, it rang and he got one day’s work repairing the brakes on a fishing boat client’s Mercedes.In CA you are either RICH or dirt POOR. The middle class is winking out like a blown bulb in a dirty stove.Normally, folks would walk up to his “Duct Tape Battleship” parked near the docks and offer him cash work. Having paid their ATT bill, the working phone got him $150 in employment immedately.25 years ago, when we bought this home, I intentionally got a very small place with just two bedrooms and one bath. One room is for my very full office (I’m a retired illustrator) and the bedroom we sleep in. Even the living room is “tight” if we have more than two guests over. My den stays locked up with all the valuables inside.The choice was intentional. No one can beg their way into our home. There is simply no room. Her sister is homeless and lives 3 blocks away in her boyfriend’s sister’s garage. She cleans our house for food money.She lost her car and driver’s license 10 years ago for not having insurance or registration. She literally waited 7 years to re-apply for her license as she did not have the hundreds of dollars to pay the tickets. More people do this in CA than you know, making hit and run accidents commonplace here.Her son is homeless going on his second decade (just like his aunt and for the same reasons). I want neither of them crowded under our roof as we live out our retirement. Then again, they are “family”.Having chronic homeless in one’s family gets very costly and if we are not careful, we could end up on the street with them.We have no idea what would happen if either of these two got sick. One option was to just turn our backs on the situation and move to Kentucky. She doesn’t want to leave her son, though. All my doctors are here, too.God help us one and all.UPDATE … Two Months later.Well, they just now drove off in the little red car and the repaired “Duct Tape Battleship”.During their time here, he fixed up his front end, installed a water pump and made his beat down coach a bit more reliable. Then, he looked on Craig’s list and found free wood flooring and new cabinets for the gutted interior.He fixed my 1967 Dodge pickup truck so we could go “get stuff”. He put in a new carb I bought and several motor gaskets. Then he tuned it up and off we went.I was amazed at all the free stuff that is available on Craig’s List.We had parked his RV in our tiny horse pasture beside the six-bay carport he built 13 years ago when he got out of what I call “Debtor’s Prison”. Don’t ask. It will simply make you angry. They really do jail you if you “can’t pay on time” in California.If you “fall” here, you fall HARD, all the way down.The carport was payment for letting him live here for six months in a rusted 17′ trailer that was rotting out back. I used it to store tools and horse supplies.He had found three pickup truck loads of 2 by 4’s for free and I pitched in for the plywood. He built it while I worked 12 hour shifts at the nuke plant to pay for it. He even built a center “shop” for the horse feed and tack.Even back then, my wife’s sister asked if she could live in it. We filled it fast.The carport roof now desperately needed to be completely replaced. It was falling in. I bought the supplies and not only did he fix the long roof but he built a beautiful 17 x 17 sub-floored enclosure in the center. He found an air-conditioner for free on line, hard wired the structure and installed it. He also found eight new free fluorescent lights and put those in as well.We’ll store our furniture in it while our home is remodeled next month.What this does actually helps another former homeless person.In 2016, we worked with “Interfaith”, a group that runs a Veterian’s Homeless Shelter for men. (Us Elks do stuff like this.) We took on a tenant for our granny flat that had been in their shelter for 18 months. The church paid the money he needed to move in.I just had to ignore his credit score and trust him. He’s been here four years now and is the best tenant we’ve ever had. Not one late rent check and he’s always gone, driving people about. The perfect tenant, right?He was able to move his wife and four year old little boy out of her mother’s apartment (that has 7 people crammed into it). So, in addition to helping a homeless vet, we reunited a family!The last time we remodeled back in 1999, we waited until the flat was empty and simply moved in while our house was redone.Not now. This new tenant has no choice but to stay. His credit still resembles a smashed thumb that won’t heal. We keep the rent low and he pays on time. We don’t want to lose him just to remodel our home. However, we have foundation repairs that will not wait much longer.Now that we have a place to store our furniture while our home is redone, we have no need to use the tenant house. The renter can stay. We’ll simply spend a couple of months in our own 2016 30′ RV while the work is done.“I’ll pull everything out and paint the rest of it tomorrow,” I thought as we watched them pull away. Next time he is up here in North County, he’ll shingle the roof, he said.He has no license, as he too is waiting out the 7 years for his record to clear because he does not have the thousands of dollars in court costs he owes. I call this situation a “poor tax”.He constantly worries about being pulled over. There is absolutely nothing he can do to fix the situation except wait it out. He can’t pay rent let alone make regular court payments. Missed payments could land him back in jail once enrolled in their expensive program.So he waits and the state gets nothing … because they asked for too much.The state just hopes that if he can’t pay, somebody else will. Being poor in Southern California is almost like being in a Mexican jail. It is nearly impossible to “go it alone”.In fact, the radio just said that on minimum wage, NOWHERE in the United States, can any one person afford to pay rent.Really?The Battleship has no insurance as nobody will insure a vehicle for a driver with no license. He still has four more years until the records are expunged and he can get a driver’s license and proper insurance.Any check he gets is in his girlfriend’s name to keep the state from taking it. Last year he made $150 “too much money” just one time and she lost her food stamps. It's almost not worth it to report your earnings here.See what I mean about a “poor tax”?His girlfriend is at the wheel of the little red car, following along as they pulled out. She has a license and cheap insurance for it. I know. I had her show it to me.But if the RV breaks down on the way back to his usual parking lot in San Diego, they will lose everything … again.So, we helped him once more. This time he helped us continue to help another person in need to keep his home.And I got a new storage shed in the deal.My wife’s sister already asked if she could live in it, so once again …We have to fill it fast.A SAD UPDATE.It is May 1st, 2020.10 days ago, his girlfriend passed away suddenly. This terrible virus took her really fast.She was a diabetic asthmatic and she did not “take care of it”. A lot of people don’t.They were in the RV for three weeks in the rain and cold. The pandemic closed the parks in San Diego, so they had no place to dump their tanks. The nice fellow that gave them propane for heat and cooking was also gone now.Park closures meant no park restroom to wash up in. The tiny toilet in the RV worked but not the shower. They were sponge bathing.She got sick. She developed flu-like symptoms in that cold, leaky RV. Her asthma was acting up, too.The hospital told him to monitor her temperature and call 911 if she developed a fever above 102. He was told to NOT go to the ER. Of course, they had no insurance.The next time he called that number, it was to report her death.He told us nothing about her being sick, only saying she thought this virus was “the end of the world”.I guess you might say she was right.He called and asked to borrow $100. We placed it on the front porch bench. We are both high risk and could not chance seeing him face to face. With his girlfriend sick … we just could not do it.We waved at him through the picture window as we stood arm in arm. He picked up the envelope, lifted his bandana, smiled a half toothed grin and left.“Of course, he’ll not see a dime of the stimulus money,” I thought. Homeless people are rather “invisible” to the rest of the population.He used the money to buy two days in a hotel room to try to warm her up. She was wheezing as he covered her in the blankets from both beds. He plugged in a heating pad that covered her legs.She was SICK.“Hand me my inhaler, babe,” were her last words.One puff, her eyes rolled up and she lay back, dead on the clean sheets in a nice bed with a roof over her head. It was the best he could provide for her when God called her home.Of course, he panicked. He called 911. He was beating on her chest in a CPR attempt. They had to peel him off of her with gloved hands and masked faces.There is a rubber device that goes over the mouth of a victim. The first responder blows into the one way valved mouth piece to offer CPR, contact free. They “offered” for an hour, he said, as he sobbed over the phone to his mother.“They finally just called it quits,” he bawled. “About ten minutes ago.”With our “extreme high risk” status, we couldn’t even go give him a hug.I spoke to him, telling him it was not his fault. They would not confirm whether it was the virus or not. (Those numbers are important, ya know.) I added that there was nothing he could have done. These days they do the opposite and inflate the numbers to get more of Trump’s money.What a world.More about money later.Given the symptoms, I called it a “stroke”. Strokes come on without warning. He could not have known … and there is not much you can do unless you act fast.I had an Albuterol inhaler a couple decades ago. One puff and I’d get a sharp headache “right between the eyes”. I tossed it away. The drug is a vasal dilator. It expands the veins in your body, starting with the lungs, to make breathing easier.Weakened by those “Flu Like Symptoms”, it burst a blood vessel in her brain after she used her inhaler. Death was instant as a gunshot.I had to think of something to say. His girlfriend was laying D-R-T (dead right there). He was waiting on the coroner. Then I remembered how I helped Mom when we had Dad die on us.So, I tried to help him over the telephone. The officers were waiting for the corner outside, to “give him some space” and to not be near another China Virus victim.“Son, do you remember people describing those “near death experiences”?“Y-yeah.”“They always say they remember floating up in the ceiling of the room, looking down on the bed and the family gathered around.”“Y-yeah. I r-remember.”“Well, look at the ceiling, right above her.”“Y-yeah, Don? I’m lookin’.”“Go ahead and wave goodbye, son. Wave goodbye and tell her you’ll be alright. That’s what she needs to hear right now.”“O-okay. I’m waving g-g’bye right now.”“Smile, dammit! You gave it your best shot! She needs to hear you’re okay.”“I’M OKAY, BABY!!!!!!!!!”Silence on the phone. Finally, I asked, “You feel any better?”“Yeah. I actually do. G’bye, Babe!”When you get to be my age, you’ve seen a death or two. It’s how I calmed down Mom.There was a good side to it, though.I mean, we are all in this together. For the first time, every person on the planet is threatened by the same danger. It should unite us. It has in many respects.It turned out his girlfriend of 7 years (common-in-law wife, I think) had a LOT of friends “on the docks” in San Diego. They provided him with such wonderful support.They lined up in the rain to offer him comfort, cooked plates of food and other meager things a group of sad, soaked homeless folk would offer. This was her only family.The boat that she did laundry for when it was “on season” for many years offered to take care of the cremation. He finally got her ashes back about 6 hours ago.She wanted to be scattered at sea. That will happen free of charge. Rich or poor, we are all in this Pandemic together.We still can’t go visit him but he seems better now.NEXT UPDATE. A Better HOME! A stable LIFE! 7–27–20Sometime, about 14 years ago, he came out of prison and he had learned something from a fellow inmate. The guy was in Donavan State for income tax issues.SO, this man felt he had been treated unfairly and wanted payback. He also knew about taxes. In detail!He figured a way to have an inmate who had worked in the “prison industries” making prison office furniture, apply for an income tax return.He taught this to as many soon-to-be released inmates as he could. He would make the government PAY for what they did to him. Indeed he did! Many times over!The way it worked was this. When my son-in-law got out, of course he could not get work. Who hires a toothless ex-con and has to stop work and report to a parole officer three times a week?He worked making prison office furniture while incarcerated. He refused parole. He wanted a “clean break” once released. I believe he said they gave him 8 cents an hour on his canteen account for his 40 hours a week labor.That stipend is definitely not minimum wage.He had a loophole method to report that his hours of labor paid that should have been recompensed at minimum wage for the past year. It added up to quite a sum. As far as the W-2 form went, a statement saying “Donavan Institution does not provide W-2 forms” was enough on his income tax return to file it.A check came in the mail for him for almost $3,000. It was his sixth month crammed into an 8 by 12 space a the back of our home! He had been sleeping in the antique, 150 year old bed his great grandmother was born in. It was a tiny but cheery room with a large picture window overlooking the horse pasture.With money, he was able to move out! Yay!He was “back inside” in another couple years. He and his dog lived in a battered Toyota stake-bed truck with plates that he had “acquired” current registration stickers for somewhere. When caught, we took back the pure bred dog we’d given him from our breeding stock of Aussies. We raised “Biddy” and the sweet puppy lived to a ripe old age.She loved to lay in the tall grass and was a “very good dog”. She’s still outback, under our massive California Pepper tree for eternity.Just last week, still in mourning over the loss of his girlfriend and 7 year partner to the China Virus, he recalled the money he got from the IRS those years ago. He, still in the “The Duct Tape Battleship” with only his new dog for company, put on his thinking cap.The government had opened the cash floodgates to help the American people during the pandemic. I personally believe that this act of empathy alone should get the president re-elected. But with the Democrats trying anything they can to “Dump Trump”, who knows?It’s wrong but who knows?What I do know is my step-son not only got $9,500 in “unemployment” but he also got the same amount for my wife’s homeless sister. Both had only worked “under the table” jobs most of their lives.This cash CHANGED their lives.She set aside her new (but “rattle can black” painted bicycle) and bought a really decent Toyota SUV, in her legal name with actual insurance. They bought a “newer” mattress for the garage they live in and replaced their dead, cracked Obama Phone.My step-son made the best move of his life, I believe, with his money. He recalled a TV show we’d watched together years ago.We sat with him and watched a National Geographic special about the boat people in Thailand. They lived on boats in the fetid canals with their families for no rent at all. They sold fruit they gathered to the people of the city to get by.As a professional sport fisherman, he did rather well “on season” but could not afford any PART of a San Diego waterfront apartment under any circumstances.The wealthy could afford $3000 a month for a slip and hook ups for their luxury cabin cruisers as they were living their retirement dreams. They live very well indeed.He found that he could moor a boat off shore for only $150 a month! A two minute troll in a boat’s dingy got him to the dock and that little red car mentioned above. (He now has correct plates and insurance). He could actually GET BY!Finally. He is no longer hand-to-mouth.He paid $5,000 of his government windfall to buy an older but really nice, spotless cabin cruiser. Today, it is moored off shore with that little dingy. He and the dog watch a 32″, 12 volt smart TV, powered by a folding solar panel from Harbor Freight.I have not seen his new accommodations yet, but over the phone, he seemed quite proud and at last, he is happy. The pictures of it look great. I noticed a “Trump Flag” waving from the flying bridge.Trump should also be proud. He has turned around the lives of MANY Americans, no matter what your politics are!It might be “3rd World Style Accommodations” but you have to say, thanks to the government “opening the coffers” in response to the China Virus, many people are doing a lot better than before. There seem to be less homeless tents on San Diego’s sidewalks these days.If I could vote, I’d keep him in office another four years,” her son said on the phone.“I have a stable life and a future, now, thanks to him,” he told us.Seeing my wife’s sister driving her “new” legal, shiny Toyota, I can’t help but agree.Their lives have been transformed.9–7–20 A pleasant surprise.As we watched the streaming of the huge “Trump Boat Parade” yesterday, (Mainstream media would only broadcast snippets of it, lest it “Help Trump”.), we marveled at the sheer VOLUME of participation.Thousands of boats motored past, all waving flags with masked people, hopping up and down on the decks. A Navy WARSHIP appeared in their midst, honking its horns and waving that huge yellow flag we see everywhere from the back of pickup trucks, along with the Stars and Stripes.The flyover of antique military planes was impressive. Nobody can do it like San Diego!It was a shame the television refused to broadcast this massive turnout, we thought as we watched on our iPhones and iPads. The streaming included audio from local Marine Band radio traffic as the crowd of vessels passed.What a bonus! We heard the commander of the Navy warship saying to the Coast Guard that he would just “slip right into the gap” they appear to be making for him. The Coast Guard replied that they were getting “good cooperation”.The air waves were crowded as people chanted “Four More Years”, “All they way with Donald J!” and “Thank you, Mr. President!” I’d not heard that one before. Some just pressed the mike button and screamed in support.Thousands of San Diegans were cross-talking their praise on the radio, about the only honest media left to them.“Most of the nation would not hear this, anyway,” I thought. “Maybe they will hear it in November.”Then my wife hopped out of her chair.There on the screen, waving a faded blue “Trump Flag” stood her SON on the foredeck of his new home. With him were several others, no doubt homeless people who lived in and around the docks of San Diego, eking out a living.It was the least they could do to say “Thanks, Mr. President.” They no longer feel forgotten.Wow.And once again, I was honored to watch “something historic” with my own eyes.At least something good came out of this story.