20-something male who rents. My father rents a house out, and has found that, depending on who is in the house, a late fee is sometimes quite necessary to convince tenants to pay on time.
Whether or not $75 to $150 is excessive, if the person signed the lease, he or she agreed to pay that fee when paying late.
At my complex, it’s $50 extra if not paid by 5pm on the third of the month, and if you’re paying after the third, you need to pay by money order or cashier’s check. I’ve yet to have to deal with that.
And yes, $75 extra on the second is more than I’ve seen anywhere else, and I don’t think I’d want to rent there.
Excessive in my experience but not unreasonable assuming that the policy was clearly spelled out in the lease and the tenant agreed to it. I have rented in three different states (Rhode Island, California and Virginia) and always had a grace period ranging from 3 to 10 days. Late fees ranged from $20 - $50.
I live in York county, Virginia.
We have owned for 18 months. Our mortgage carries a grace period of 16 days, BTW, with a late fee of $78 on a mortgage (PITI) of $1940. If I were renting my house out personally – fairly common in my area because we have a lot of military people who rent their primary homes while they are serving overseas – I would definately want a grace period of significantly less than the 16 days my mortgage company gives me and a late fee large enough to cover the $78 my mortgage company would charge me if I were late with the payment.
I am a housewife. My husband is retired from the Navy (why we rented for so many years) and works as a Defense Consultant.
It.s reasonable. And very avoidable. Just pay the rent on time.
I live in Long Beach, Ca.
I rent.
I work in the data processing field. Yay!
I am 39.
I am of the male persuasion.
IMO, late fees are needed because there are always those who continue to test you. You say ‘have the rent by the 1st’, they gice it on the 3rd. You say ‘OK, the 3rd is OK, then they give it on the 6th’. They always have a story, it’s always someone else’s fault.
The fact that it’s the agreed-upon rent day should be incentive enough to have the check in. But with some folks, other incentive is needed.
Do you find the late fee to be reasonable?
Not at all. Kinda steep, but if you pay the rent on time, you don’t have to pay it. If it was in the lease, you knew it when you signed up. Or you should’ve read the lease better.
Where do you live?
Atlanta, GA.
Do you rent or own?
Rent.
What is your occupation?
College Student/Slacker/Sometime Web Designer/Occasional Writer
Seems high to me. What is the rational reason for it? Why not $1.00 or $1000?
A late fee, in my mind, should be a little above the interest your landlord could be earning if that money were in the bank, and I don’t know of any bank that pays $75 interest on $661 in 5 days. Let me know where that bank is and I will be sure to deposit a nice chunk of change.
I own a home, my mortgage is $991 and my late fee is only $40 and that is up to 30 days late!
I used to rent. Lived in one place five years and was never late. One day, the company I worked for went belly up and I was not only unemployed, I wasn’t paid my last month’s salary. I told this to the landlord. I got the rent money together five days late, and that landlord - a woman I helped many times and I was put in charge of the building when she went on vacation - actually put an eviction notice on my door. When I took the rent, and her eviction notice to her, she said, “when it comes to rent, I can’t be flexible.” I moved two months later when I found a new job, and was happy to hear she was unable to rent my apartment for almost 5 months because people considered the apartment in West Hollywood, CA to be too expensive.
I just looked at my current rental agreement, which states that there will be a $10 penalty incurred once the rent is five days past due. That seems like a fairly reasonable penalty to me.
In the three years that i’ve lived in this apartment, i have only paid the rent that late on two occasions. Each time, it was because i was out of town and had forgotten to send my rent check before i left. Each time, i actually took the rent check to the management office (rather than posting it), apologized for my tardiness, and explained the circumstances. And each time, the manager said “No problem,” and didn’t charge me the late fee. You don’t have to be an asshole just because you can, and as a result of the way i’ve been treated by my management company, i’m happy to recommend them to anyone i meet who’s looking for a place to rent.
I’m actually moving into a rented house with my girlfriend at the end of March. We are renting from the owner, who is a very nice guy. Our rather long rental agreement made no mention of a late fee, but because we get the feeling that he’ll be relying on our rent payments to pay off his mortgage, and because we think of ourselves as responsible people, we’re going to be very particular about paying on time every month.
If someone were to present me with a rental agreement demanding a $75 late fee with not even one day’s grace, i’d probably tell them to shove it up their ass. Not because i don’t pay my rent on time (apart from the two occasions described above, it’s always paid right on time), but because a landlord who inserts this type of clause is probably an irresponsible asshole.
In the OP’s case, i’d also ask the landlords if they are willing to put a clause in the lease stating that the rent will be reduced by $75 if the landlord ever takes more than a day to respond to a problem.