Re: What would you do :  Tenant has late fees she refuses to pay (1 month)

What would you do :
Tenant has late fees she refuses to pay (1 month ). Late fees roll over and now has accumulated more late fees . She now demands office removes late fees.Tenant has been paying her rent on time recently ( she has been late in the past and late fees have been waived ). Judge is VERY pro tenant . Judge has abated cases on tenants word that the ntv was posted incorrectly. We don’t want to file eviction over $130 but she is refusing to pay . Assistant won’t get her bonus if this balance isn’t paid and tenants attitude is soooooo ugly .

Anonymous member late fees will be waived, next time an eviction will be filed, she’ll be responsible for attorney fees as well.
If you have lawyers, have them draw up a clause to include in your lease (as well as the form for her to sign) to further prevent this problem. Especially if you do want to evict and there’s nothing in the lease stating all payments will be applied to oldest balance.
Also change your online portal payment to only accept full amount online, as well as not allowing payments to be made online after a certain amount of days, the resident would need to provide a cashiers check for the full amount only.

I’d waive the fees this last time but make the resident sign a form stating this is the last time. Next time it will result in eviction being filed, attorneys fees and she will be liable.

In your lease, do you have a clause that states all payments will be applied to the oldest balance first?

Sounds like it might be in the best interest of the assistant to pay the late fee for the tenant. Either that or the bonus is weak. In either case that kinda points out how messed up the compensation structure is….

I am wondering why payment was accepted without being made in full? We don’t accept partial payments because of this situation here. Your only choice this time would be to waive the late fee to get it off your delinquency and so that your assistant gets their bonus. However, going forward I would not accept any payments that are not made in full, or if you do it needs to be applied to the oldest balance, but that can create a vicious cycle on payments for the resident.

Casey N Aaron Enriquez they pay online . We thought about blocking the account so she could only pay via money order but that’s not going to be able to happen until next rent period

Partial payments should not be accepted. That would stop this issue from ever occurring, because you would be able to file eviction on the resident for non payment of rent.

First thing I would do is ensure that when rents are paid, that all fines, fees & charges over and above rent are paid first, so technically, those late fees have been paid with her next payment, and what is left over is rent.

It sounds like a precedent has been set at this property that late fees will be waived.
I’d have a conversation with the resident that it will be waived a final time (if it won’t impact a bonus).
If they’re irate and you have the ability to offer alternative due dates it could be the solution they’re looking for as well.

Late fees come out 1st, now shes Delinquent in rent.

Change your portal setting to not allow partial payments, set up you settings to apply funds paid to other charges first and rent last, and the emergency order for eviction diversion and case abatement expired 7/1 for Texas so if you happen to be in Texas the abatements for rental assistance should end.
This would leave a pure rent balance on the account that you can send notice and file eviction on. I would not remove the fee just for the sake of getting your assistant a bonus.

Post what she pays to fees first then she'll have a balance on rent

We only allow one waived late fee per 12 month period for residents. You’ll want to ensure you’re being consistent with waiving late fees otherwise that will get you in a sticky situation.
And agree with everyone else. Only accept the full balance owed and ensure your online system is set up that way.

If you waive her fees, be prepared to waive for all other residents.
What does your lease say about applying monies to unpaid past balances? If you can do it, apply her money to the past due late fees and the remainder to the rent. You then file on the unpaid rent.

Personally, it sounds like the late fees should be waived and to me, this isn't an issue that is the responsibility of the assistant. If the assistant is the one asking this question I would immediately go look for another job. It's not the assistant's call on this, so they shouldn't be punished if this isn't able to be collected. If this were me, I would waive the late fee and at the next opportunity, such as renewal, I would essentially include this amount in the rental increase, such as an additional $10 a month on top of what I would have increased their rent to, or wave the late fee and notice them of non-renewal whenever that comes. Moving sucks and if they're willing to have to move over $130, then that's the price they have to pay.

Seriously! Just work it out! Judges don likely late fees, just another junk fee. You can always collect fees is to deduct from deposit at the end of the lease. Keeps the customer relationship civil, till they’re not a customer anymore.
Adjust the bonus, don’t screw the employee.

If she is a chronic late payer, and expects to have the fees waived, the next time the resident is up for renewal, just send a non renewal to her.

In our lease it's worded that that the fees are considered "rent". So any payments are credited to the oldest part of the balance first. That would cause partially unpaid rent for the current month which would allow for eviction filing.

I would’ve returned her payment to her citing that the full balance wasn’t paid.

All payments should be applied to the oldest balances, which means if she still owes $130, she owes $130 in rent. I personally would keep the late fee. It sounds like she's had not just one, but multiple late payments in the past which have been waived. If you bring that information to court (should you elect to file), I feel like the judge will be more inclined to make her pay/move out.

Agree 110%

We have a few tenants that have a very belligerent attitude about late fees. In some cases my philosophy has been to waive them, but then take that into account when setting their next rent increase.

I think it partially rests on at least 2 things 1) do you have a written policy, and 2) are you consistent in following it, with only exceptions being for bonafide extenuating circumstances.

This doesn’t exclude other factors

Following those criteria, then the question is do you have higher vacancies? If so, you are going to weigh her refusal to pay versus her demeanor as a tenant. BUT REMEMBER if she gets away with it, she’ll tell that to other tenants and they will spread the word, and that’s could be a big problem in the near future with other tenants testing it

It has been our experience that it our lease is a clear one, and we have written legal policies that we follow consistently, our chances in even a liber court are much better.

Good luck. This isn’t an easy situation because it can set an undesirable precedent with other tenants

I agree, we have the same policy and our settings reflect that. We don't allow partial payments therefore they pay the entire amount. I wish all states and judges would abide by the leases instead of how they felt.