Rent collection partial or whole

[John Jackson Jr]

I was asked recently if I accept partial payments or only whole when it comes to rent collection. I’m curious as to what particular reasons you wouldn’t collect partial payments. Thoughts?

[Nathan Gesner]

In some states, collecting even a portion of the rent legally obligates you to keep the tenant. If a tenant is three months behind on rent and you start the eviction process, accepting a $100 payment could derail your attempts to evict. For this reason, some Landlords will only accept payment in full.

If I have a tenant that's behind, I will sometimes set up a payment plan to help them catch back up. The plan is written, with hard deadlines and we start the eviction process if they fail. No late notices, no calls begging them for payment, no late fees. They avoid eviction by agreeing to a plan, but one failure and they're headed to eviction.