Tenants are supposed to remit rent payment to you or have the amount deposited in a pre-designated account on or before the due date specified in the lease agreement. Sometimes, due to circumstances beyond their control, tenants, no matter how ideal they are, send their payment a few days late. This is something you can live with, and being the understanding landlord that you are, you quietly wait for them to remit payment.

But when you’ve waited more almost a week for their rent to be reflected in your account, it’s normal to worry. If your tenant is not habitually late in paying his dues, there’s no need to pre-terminate the contract and issue a 3-day notice to vacate. For first time offenders you may gently remind them that rent was due by issuing a Notice of Overdue Rent.

The format of Overdue Rent notices is fairly basic. It contains the date the notice is written, the names and addresses of the landlord and the tenant, and a short paragraph informing the tenant when rent for a particular time frame was due. Usually, overdue notices also indicate the preferred payment details (where and when payment can be remitted).

If you don’t want to trouble real-estate lawyers over such trivialities, you can compose your own Overdue Rent Notice. If you want a standard notice, forms can easily be downloaded from the internet. Whichever kind you choose to present does not matter. As long as all the pertinent details (those previously mentioned) are on it, and it is signed, this document is valid.

In case you’ve issued an Overdue Notice then notice the amount reflected in your bank account (or have issued the notice before your tenant paid in cash), inform the tenant about the notice, and ask her to just disregard it. If your tenant says that payment was remitted but it is still not on your bank records, ask for transaction documents to substantiate the claim. If these are presented, it is but right that you apologize and reassure her that this misunderstanding will not, in any way, affect her standing as a tenant.

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