finally, I removed the five-day grace period from my lease. Now the $20 per day late fee (capped at $200) starts on the 1st , regardless if it falls on weekend or holiday.

My City, Los Angeles, moved to remove weekends or holidays from counting "days" for the purposes of notices. So a 3 Day Notice means up to a week. Plus tenants have longer to respond to official court summons, instead of 5 days they have up to 15 days, excluding all weekends and holidays -- giving a tenant up 20 somes days to reply....and so on...

David-MI, any particular reason that spurred the action? I’ve never charged one but would if a tenant became habitually late. I’ve been pretty flexible, perhaps because my few are paid off and I’ve never had an issue. If I was carrying a mortgage, however, there would be no grace period. Just curious what prompted this for you. Great job.

For the last 6 or 7 years I have used the No grace period - due on the first - late on 2cd - $10 per day up to 10% of the rent. Tenants are more timely with payments.

Whether I carried a mortgage or not wouldn't affect whether I'd charge late fees.

Grace period- nope.

@WMH (NC) How do you avoid NCGS 42-46? Are you just ignoring it? sort of a don't ask don't tell policy?

Summary below.

Only GOOD thing about having a grace period, is it offers a very non-confrontational opportunity to say-

"Hey... calling because your rent is late...but as long as you make it before the grace period is up, there are no late fees".

Our lease requires rent payment to be to us by the last day of the month prior to the month payment is for. I will accept a check anytime prior to rent being due. My promise to my tenant is that a chek will not be deposited before the 1st.

Getting the checks earlier than the 1st helps me stay organized, post the rent and sign the back of the checks for mobil deposit. It allows me to determine any missing rent and to send a reminder that a late fee can be avoided if they get the payment to me before the end of the day.

David,

Congrats on making the change!

And Welcome to the 20th Century! We've been promoting that for YEARS, since dial up MrLL.

As stated in all of our rental agreements, our rents are due in full on or before the first of each month. We do make allowances for the portion of our S8 tenants that is paid by their PHA but the tenant's portion is still due on or before the first.

Bill KY, I realized that a grace period doesn't really help on time tenants because their money won't leave their bank account until I get the check. so even though they will now mail check on the 27 or 28, they keep the money until I receive.

As for what law allows for late fees, my view is this. If you don't follow security deposit law, penalty can be treble damages. But if you don't follow late fee law, well, if the tenant is still willing to pay, no one will know. If it goes to court, the worst is that the judge will not allow the late fees on the rent owed.

SC requires 5 days grace...

So I offer an "early payment discount" for those that pay prior to the first.

Bonanza,

NCGS 42-46 does not require that a landlord give a grace period. It only requires that a late fee not be imposed until 5 days or more after rent is late.

This is distinct from what I believe WMH and a lot of other landlords are doing in declaring that rent is due on date X and late after that. This also is legal. NCGS 42-3 allows a landlord to file for eviction 10 days after rent is due and unpaid. By not allowing a grace period, a landlord can, in theory, file for eviction 5 days sooner than those who have a grace period.

A number of apartment complexes follow a version of the apartment association lease. At least a few years ago, those did not have a grace period.

I don’t do grace periods. I also use Clearnow. There is a $10 fee for paying outside of Clearnow as well. If tenant stops their Clearnow payment or it fails more than once in a six month period it is grounds for lease termination as well.

Nobody has ever balked about paying late fees.

I was going to ask about the state laws requiring a 5 day grace period but I think that Sir Walter just answered that.

I will ask this instead,

Does it say in your lease that there is no grace period?

Also, I thought the law gave credit for weekends and holidays?

NCGS 42-46 does not require that a landlord give a grace period. It only requires that a late fee not be imposed until 5 days or more after rent is late.

This is distinct from what I believe WMH and a lot of other landlords are doing in declaring that rent is due on date X and late after that. This also is legal. NCGS 42-3 allows a landlord to file for eviction 10 days after rent is due and unpaid. By not allowing a grace period, a landlord can, in theory, file for eviction 5 days sooner than those who have a grace period.

Back in the ‘90’s when we had only 55 units i sent a letter to all residents eliminating the grace period (which everyone had told me “is standard”).

Not a single person complained and all our rents came in on time. Before this they dribbled in over 5 days plus a weekend so sometimes 7 days.

Back when we accepted personal checks we would not know their payment bounced until the last week of the month so we lost a month even before eviction.

In Indiana we can file for eviction THE DAY the rent is late. With luck on the calendar we can get the house back by the end of that month.

A proper lease MUST state the due date and when the late fee begins. GOTTA be spelled out or it’s up to a judge’s mood that day.

Hoosier IN I got a kick out of not worth it part of your post. Nothing is ever worth it untiul you compound it.