Question About Changing Rental Periods and Rent Due Dates

[Jim M.]

Need some advice on a rental house I just purchased.

I just purchased a small house that was already tenant occupied, but that had no written lease. I confirmed the rental amount ($750.00) and security deposit (also $750.00) with the tenants (boyfriend and girlfriend). All is good there.

However, today the boyfriend informed me that they were paying the rent on the 2nd Friday of each month, not the 1st due to their paycheck schedules. I got them to agree to a fixed date of the 15th of each month. The problem is that I really don't want to have to wait until the 15th of each month to find out if they are paying on time because with grace periods and normal delays I would probably not know if they were going fully delinquent on rent until a few days from the end of the month so the tenants would essentially be getting a free month of rent on me. Therefore, I was thinking about changing the rental period from the 1st of each month to the end of each month to the 15th of each month to the 14th of the next month. This would require that I get 45 days of rent for November to cover all of November and December 1-14. From that point forward the rent would just be due on the 15h of each month.

The problems are as follows:

1. I am not sure if the buyers could afford paying $750.00 + $375.00 for the period of 11/1/2014 to 12/14/2014 (i.e. 1.5 months rent).

2. I want to find an easy way to explain this to the tenants.

Does anyone have any input or a better idea how to handle this abnormal rent payment schedule?

[Ann Bellamy]

If you are going to change the due date, (which you apparently have already agreed to) I would definitely change the rental period.  

The problem is, you have already allowed them to set the terms.  In addition, isn't the boyfriend working?

As a comparison, my rental period is the 25th to the 24th.  This allows me to collect rent on the 25th and deposit in time for mortgages due.  I don't need this, but I used to when I started.  

So today is the 6th, and you are not getting the Nov 1-30 rent until 11/15.  I would set up a schedule starting 12/1 and tell them that in order to accommodate their request, since they are good tenants (you don't know that yet, of course) you will accept 1/2 month on 12/1 for the period 12/1 to 12/15 and then accept a full month on 12/15 for the period 12/15-1/14.  If they can't do this, then perhaps they need a new rental house and you will accept their 30 day notice.  You need to put it all in writing in a rental agreement signed by all parties.

In order to explain to the tenants, you take out a nice big calendar and explain when rent is due on 11/1 it is in advance for the period 11/1-30, and show them, so that they are actually late when they pay 11/15 for the same period.

Perhaps if they are that tight on their budget they need a cheaper rental.  I wouldn't budge much on this, you can't allow them to set the terms, because that sets the tone for the whole relationship.