Landlord chasing rent - AIBU?

[missverstaendnis]

I am feeling rather upset after receiving an email last night from my landlord informing me that my rent was overdue for payment (due on the 1st) and to make arrangements ASAP for payment.

For background. For the last 5 years of living in this house my rent has been on a monthly standing order for the 1st of the month. This has ALWAYS been paid, have never been late to pay rent EVER.
Fast forward to this month as the 1st falls on a Saturday, DDs/ Standing Orders get paid out following working day (tomorrow, the 3rd).
I have never wasted a thought on this nor has it ever been raised as an issue.

Called the landlord to inform of this to which I was told her needs to pay his own outgoing on the 1st and that rent needs to be paid on a 1st of each month. I wasn't believed that payment will automatically go out Monday morning.

So I have cancelled my standing order and made a transfer last night to him.
Now it looks like it was too late to actually cancel the standing order from leaving my account tonight, so I will be catapulted into my overdraft.

Who is being unreasonable here -
landlord for requesting payment on a weekend and chasing me on it on a Saturday night with a harsh email,
or me for not monitoring that the 1st fell on a non-banking day and not cancelling the standing order sooner to arrange for the transfer on the morning of the 1st?

I mean to be honest I probably wouldn’t have even noticed the email from a landlord on a Saturday night. To try and keep a work life balance I don’t check my email on weekends so if my landlord had been that desperate they’d have had to ring me though realistically chasing on a Saturday after the bank closed wouldn’t have helped anyone surely because too late to cancel/change a standing order and could potentially result in a transfer that also doesn’t clear until Monday. Any of my direct debit dates if they fall on the weekend/bank holiday go the next working day after and that has never been a problem for anyone so far because all of their outgoings likely do exactly the same thing.

I used to organise paying staff, which we did a few days before the end of the month so people had wages in for the first. If the pay date was over a weekend or bank holiday we paid it on a Friday. It worked well. So you could offer to do this.

I recently started working for a rental company. Lots of our tenants pay on the 1st, and I actually noticed this month and mentioned to my colleague that all of the rent payments came in on Monday (3rd) except one single payment on Saturday the 1st. I thought it was weird.

Colleague told me that the majority of the tenants have standing orders (our preference), but presumably that one tenant pays by direct transfer and I’ve not noticed until now.

Anyway, we have no issue with the rent being paid on the next working day!

Set the payment date to 28th or earlier each month…. Otherwise there may be a problem with February when it’s not a leap year.🙂

May 2022
January 2022
August 2021
May 2021
November 2020
August 2020
March 2020
February 2020
December 2019
September 2019
June 2019
December 2018
September 2018
July 2018
April 2018
October 2017

But in all seriousness, I'd go with setting it for the 28th of each month, too. Payments + non-leap year Februarys (Feburaries?) are a pain in the butt.

Your landlord is being total a dick. It's normal for direct debits to out the next working day if they fall on a weekend. I rented for years and never had a landlord complain about this.

I pay my rent by SO on the first of the month. If that date falls on a Saturday or Sunday, then it goes out on the Monday following. This is standard practice known by anyone and everyone and was set up at my landlord's request when I took on the tenancy. I have always privately rented since I have been on my own and have usually rented from local landowning estates who own their properties outright without mortgages and have only ever once rented from a private small landlord who relied on the rent to pay a mortgage. That was a huge mistake, and I would never do it again! Not that I have ever been late with a rent payment except in the instances described above which are mere technicalities. However, tenants leave, and you can't guarantee that another tenant will follow straight away, so if you're in a position to not be able to stand a "late" payment of a couple of days owing to a weekend, you've no real business being a landlord.

I'm a landlord and most rent does come in on the day whether a weekend or not, to be honest I've never asked if there are special arrangements for this. I wouldn't lose any sleep if a tenant paid on the following working day. They are entitled to ask for it on time but realistically they're not going to do anything for a day or two especially after 5 years so they are being if not unreasonable then an arse.

But this is why we set up standing orders so we know stuff gets paid and not have to worry? Contact your bank and explain the situation they might as a gesture of goodwill cancel and interest for that portion you went into your overdraft. I do think your landlord was being ott maybe should have ignored the email and told him later you didn’t read it yet! Then he’d have just got his money as usual on the Monday x

Isn't it most likely he forgot about it being a weekend and assumed you were refusing to pay because rent had been increased?
Still makes him a nob but seems most likely explanation if he's not complained when it's happened before.

YANBU. You've obviously been an excellent tenant for 5 years, and the landlord should have anticipated this slightly late payment or sent a reminder. He should have shown more flexibility in the situation, as you clearly weren't trying to rip him off!

Landlord of 12 properties here. I'm actually shocked by how many people on this thread think YABU! This sometimes happens with my tenants and I don't even chase them. If it falls over Christmas/bank holidays they payment could be days late in some cases.

The landlord's budget is not your problem. They should have a good buffer for the mortgage/bills without needing your rent to cover it. What would happen if you couldn't pay? Plus, the landlords SO/DD will also move due to the weekend payment date.

You should not have to transfer the money early; the standing order should just do it's thing. If you have overpaid then the landlord should refund immediatly.

Regardless of who is "wrong" or "right" - the law is on your side, as the landlord cannot enforce any action unless you are 8 weeks in arrears, and even then, can only take court action if you are STILL 8 weeks in arrears at the hearing...so they can literally do nothing if you rent is paid 1/2/30 days late.

First of all your landlord was unreasonable and unprofessional. I would have then rung the bank (all banks have phone hours available over the weekend) to see what the problem was. Your standing order ought to have gone out the last working date before the due date over the weekend. You could then calmly emailed the landlord to tell him that you had spoken to the bank and that the rent would come out whenever. If the landlord has a payment due immediately after your rent when in then that is not your responsibility. Legally, the rent is due on the first but no court would punish you because the bank failed in its duty. If I was you I would raise a complaint with the bank to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

He might have a mortgage that goes out on that day and would get penalised if not paid.

Of course he won't be penalised if his mortgage payment falls due at the weekend and doesn't come out of his bank on until the next working day.

The same thing applies to mortgages as it does to any other payment that falls due at the weekend, it will be paid on the next working day, usually the Monday.

And no one is going to be penalised under those circumstances.

I'm shocked at the number of posters on this thread who have no idea how Direct Debit and Standing Order payments work.

No mortgages go out on a Saturday

All my DDs go out on the next working day if the date they're due to be paid is a weekend. Lived here 12 years same rented property. Never been a problem with any DDs to any company or person.

You wouldn't!

This entirely.

If the LL needs that money no later than 1st of the month, then they need to set the payment date earlier to ensure it reaches them by then to account for BH’s and weekends.

Poor planning on the LL’s part.

I'm a landlord. My rents comes in 9 out of 12 times on the same day, and on those other days with a one or two day variance due to weekends or bank holidays. It always comes on the day or one or two after.
It's a foolish landlord to rely on it coming in a specific day to cover expenses going out that same day, and I suspect this isn't usually the case as it has never been an issue before.

I have experienced this exact situation as a LL (one small property we used to live in). We received rent a few days late one month early on in a new tenancy because of the payment not going through on the weekend.

This was a problem for us, not because of our mortgage on the property or any cash flow problems, but rather because of a rent indemnity policy that we had taken out (following a very bad experience with a tenant that didn’t pay for many months).

When this policy is renewed annually we have to confirm that our tenant has never been late with rent payments - so if they are technically late because of weekend banking issues, it could be reason to deny us cover in the event of non payment.

When this situation arose, I called our tenant and politely explained the issue and it has never been a problem since, they took measures to ensure that the rent was never late again.

On one occasion our tenant actually paid the rent twice in error and called me in a panic. I made sure to reimburse him by BACS within minutes. Any LL should do the same to ensure minimum stress to a tenant in the event of an error.

A landlord/tenant relationship can be tricky, but I have learned to view it as a mutually beneficial arrangement where both parties have rights and obligations. Politeness when discussing issues goes a long way to smooth the path and build trust. Your LL could have been more polite and acknowledged that the problem was a quirk of the banking system, but I don’t believe he was wrong for requesting that payment be made on or before the due date.

@heyitsthistle
After reading your comment I decided to check how many times the 28th (that's when I pay my rent) occured on a Sat or Sunday between when I moved in on that date and this month, 12 years later. The answer was 44. Landlord has never mentioned it, it's in the tenancy agreement only as a monthly payment in advance as from the date I moved in.
The OP's LL must either live hand to mouth or be really arsy.