Tenant Always Pays Late

[el1zabeth]

I have a tenant who, for the last 8 months is always late with the rent. When she moved into the house 2 years ago, she would pay in 6 monthly chunks which was great.

At the beginning of this year she had a nasty altercation with her boyfriend (who also lived at the house) and he left. I asked if she wanted to remain living there with her 2 little children, and did she want to continue to pay in 6 month lump sums. At the time she said that she did want to stay, but would it be okay if she paid month to month until she decided what to do, so I agreed.

Since then, I have always had to text /email /phone her to remind that it's time for the rent (due on 1st of each month) and each time I try to make contact it takes days before she responds, and there's always some excuse such as "sorry I didn't see your text, one of the kids must have got hold of my phone and read it" or "I tried to transfer the money but someone has hacked into my online account so I need to go to the bank to sort it" and other similar scenarios. I am always having to pretty much beg for the rent, and it's making me pissed off. It's MY house and she already underpays (according to the going rate by around £100 monthly) I have bills to pay from the monthly rent, which ok, I usually have sufficient in my account to cover them, but it's not the point.

She's now late again, and her latest excuse yesterday was that she was out for the day and the (alleged) standing order that she set up, she'd accidentally set it for the 9th of the month which is eight days over the contract due date.

My husband thinks perhaps it's time to give her notice to vacate, but I'll feel bad knowing that she did have a terrible time at the beginning of the year and she has two very young children to take care of alone. I know she loves living there plus she said the schools where she wants her kids to attend are in the right district, but this is a business and I'm not a charity and I shouldn't have to be the one who feels guilty asking for what is our money.

Would it be unreasonable to give her notice to get out, or do I simply carry on calling emailing texting and ultimately going to the house to collect the rent, late, each month?

If she is in cash flow difficulties Inwould be tempted to give notice before she starts not paying at all.

Asdf12345 It looks like it will come to that at some point soon, yes.

OP I think the suggestion she is on universal credit now is possibly true, even if she’s still working. When you sign on they make your payments to you from the day you claim, so if she went down there on the 9th for example they’ll pay her on the 9th of every month. Maybe she is embarrassed & doesn’t want to tell you, or maybe she’s scared you’ll evict her if she told you. Lots of landlords don’t like/won’t accept benefit recipients.

I know you don’t owe her anything & she is an adult, but given she has a child/children I would try & have an honest chat with her & ask if there’s anything you can do to help. You could evict her but as other posters have said that could just cause more stress for you.

ask if there’s anything you can do to help.

Like what? Not ask for the money she owes?

Keeping a roof over her children’s heads is the tenant’s responsibility, not OPs.

I notice you’ve said there is a guarantor. Could you work it in the same way that a guarantor loan works i.e. change it so she pays by DD, not cash. If the money is not received by the 1st then it automatically gets taken from the guarantors account. I dare say that would be the kick up the backside needed. I also agree with what someone else said. If it was me and she came to me and explained an issue I.e she doesn’t get paid until later in the month etc then I’d be a bit more accommodating but it’s the lies that would get to me

Sorry if the above has been suggested and I missed it

Cmon op you can’t give someone the option of paying monthly. Your tenant is perfectly entitled to do that. You were incredibly spoilt being paid in 6 month chunks. You make it sound as though you are doing her a favour when in fact up to this point she was.

This tenant has a guarantor, who has to pay or you can threaten court action. It’s unlikely in this scenario they wouldn’t cough up. Why don’t you contact them when the payment is late? Why haven’t you discussed with your tenant about changing the payment date as I suggested?

Give notice if you think that will make you happy. Next time, you may get a tenant, who won’t / can’t pay.

What would do if you had someone, who trashed the house and created several thousand pounds worth of damage and didn’t pay your rent for 6 months? I’m so lucky for this never to have happened to me. However I am the only one I’m my family, who has not and we all use agents thus having added protection.

You’re frothing at the mouth getting advice from people, who aren’t actually landlords when you could take advice from people, who actually are. More fool you.

Fairydust
No you can’t do this. There is no magic button to press, which proves payment hasn’t been forthcoming iyswim. You can ask for the money though. And yes, the guarantor would probably sort the tenant out. But op doesn’t want to listen to actual advice.

OP, if your tenant was a single male, no children, you'd be getting a different response. But a mother? Some people would be slating you for doing anything other than letting her live there rent free.
Her family - her responsibility. Not yours.
The wads of cash do suggest some sort of criminal activity. If there really is a cannabis operation in the house, you need to put a stop to it. Hydroponics create one hell of a lot of heat and humidity and this can can cause quite some damage. Maybe it's time for an annual inspection?

send her a letter to lay out the history - explain that for the last 8 months, youve noticed a pattern of late payment. let her know that going forward you will be charging late payment fees for late payments, as it this is having a financial impact for you. also ask if it would be useful if you changed the payment date the rent is due as you want to work with her to find a positive solution.
be careful not to escalate tensions because you could find yourself in a situation where she stops paying altogether, or (worst case scenario) trashes your property.

Your headline is misleading. She has hasn't always paid late has she? You had the luxury of her paying up front in 6 months chunks, so she has only been paying late (by a few days) for the last 8 months. I do agree that her personal problems are not your problems, and as irritating as it must be to have to check and send a text - she is not actually in arrears. She pays her rent and she seems not to be a troublesome tennant with regards to noise/neighbours/house wrecking. Whilst she is going through this transition period why not cut her some slack, issue her with a warning letter but remember the alternative could be worse. House empty, fees, references for new unknown tenants could be much more costly in the long run.

oh and my tenants get a discount for paying by standing order, as opposed to cash.

Notice needs to be served - hopefully you have a break clause in your contract and can do it via this - it’s usually after the 6 month mark and is a 2 month notice period.
Her personal circumstances aren’t your business - whether she pays rent on time or not, is. Good luck.

The problem this lady has is lack of funds.
I would sit down with her and make a plan about trying to accommodate the situation and see if she can get help from the proper authority to help her with making the rent and trying to see if that’s a way for.
If she’s alone and dealing with the breakup of a marriage and divorce it’s not a very nice place to be.
Before you criticize or accuse walk a mile in her shoes.
And if you are getting the money a little bit late I would reckon she has other problems also.
Give her a break

@holymoly01

That’s not OP’s problem. Anyway the tenant has an inheritance she’s likely using that to pay rent.

The problem this lady has is lack of funds.

Then she needs to live somewhere cheaper.

The number of people of here acting like the tenant is a child and the OP has to parent her is ridiculous. She’s an adult. She needs to pay her bills, on time, like the rest of us do.

I doubt very much my bank would offer to hold me hand if I couldn’t be arsed to pay my mortgage on time.

Sounds like she's stuck in a bad spot with depression hun. I would write something formal asking for a new rent review. Also appreciation gift cards mailed to your tenant to help her with the children every now and then is a great way to keep your tenants happy and communicating. Good luck. I hope it all works out.

OP, you are seemingly getting your rent paid every month.
Obviously it is completely up to you if you want to evict a late payer but I would warn that it is very often better the devil you know.
If you evict then firstly, she’ll possibly have to stop paying rent and will need to be forcibly evicted, this is due to council rules on housing families. This could take months and costs could run into thousands.
Even without that concern, you are likely to have a period without a tenant, costing money. You will have to redecorate again costing money. Then you have to hope that your next tenant pays regularly and on time also.
These are standard concerns of course, which you will know about, but if you think that sending 2 or 3 messages and waiting a week or two for your rent is exceptional then you are in for a shock at some point in the future. Think very carefully before changing something that is seemingly working at pretty much 99% efficiency. Take it from someone who has seen it all before.

Annelovesgilbert,
She's in a rental property paying someone else's mortgage. She isn't a child, she has children. I understand adulthood is paying bills on time etc but adulthood is more than that. It's depression, anxiety, happiness, love, joy, fear, and resilience. The key to adulthood is to be understanding. If life has never thrown you shit so bad that you can't pay your rent on time or can't buy your kids food for real then my friend you have hit adulthood.

I doubt very much my bank would offer to hold me hand if I couldn’t be arsed to pay my mortgage on time.

Actually @AnneLovesGilbert , that is exactly what they would do, figuratively speaking at any rate. They would speak to you, they would offer advice, they would seek to assess your income and expenditure and offer temporary and possibly permanent help with managing your debt which would most likely include foregoing interest.

Im not a landlord but i am a tenant.

My first thought was that shes now claiming universal credit and is to afraid to tell you incase you evict her, there are so many landlords that wont rent to someone claiming benefits. Her payment day is likely after the 1st and she makes excuses to hold off paying, not right but fear can make you do daft things.

We had a change in circumstances that meant we couldnt pay our rent on the 23rd of each month as we had been for the past 3years so i messaged my landlord and explained the situation and asked if we could change the date to the 26th of each month, this wasnt an issue and thats what we did. Have you noticed a pattern with the date she is paying? Could you just tell her your changing the date to the 9th (or whatever) as youve noticed thats when shes able to pay but if it is late you will begin the eviction process.

We recently started to get universal credit to help with our rent and i havent told my landlords because im worried they will think it means we cant pay the rent.

Owning a second home is a privilege, and personally I am against people making profit off a basic human requirement of accommodation. But anyway.....

She pays the rent, albeit a few days late. Shes otherwise a great tenant.

Set up a reminder email/calendar invite if easier.

But evicting someone because you feel slighted that you have to chase her by text for payment that isnt even your main income, come on now.

Why don't you look at it like you would a job, e.g you have to do what...10 minutes of texting a month to get paid a couple of hundred pounds.

This thread is crazy.

What is OP has a mortgage on the property? How is she supposed to explain the late payments to the bank every month?

Coffeeandcherrypie Shes already said she has enough money in her account to cover it so its not really relevant.

Also appreciation gift cards mailed to your tenant to help her with the children every now and then is a great way to keep your tenants happy and communicating

Christ on a bike. OP there seem to be an insane amount of posters here ignoring the facts in favour of bizarre suggestions like the ones above 🙈. She agreed to a contract and has to abide by it - and if she can’t, then she needs to downsize and adjust her finances. Just because she’s a mother doesn’t, and shouldn’t, mean that she can miss her payment dates. You’ve been considerably lenient to allow the situation to continue like this.