Late Fees for Partial Rent Payment

[Jarrod B.]

Hey there guys, I have a question for you all in regards to late fees.  I made the mistake by giving my tenants my bank account information and just had them deposit their rents into the account, well that opened up a can of worms that allowed for partial rent payments.  I have since closed down my bank account and have instructed my tenants to either pay me by way of check (and then I'll use the postmark date to assess late fees), or I have set up an account with erentpayment.com that will not allow for partial payments.

That being said, I have one tenant that's a constant pain in my ash.  He's consistently late and pays partial payments all the time.  His rent is $1,500 and this past month he paid me $1,450.  In the event that your tenant is even just $50 under their rent payment, do you all assess the late fee (the late fee for this unit is $50) if your lease allows for it?  In addition, when the following month comes rolling around, if they don't pay you for the underpayment and the late fee and just pay you the full amount of rent ($1,500) do you again assess a late fee because there is still uncollected rent ($100)?  And so the late fees keep incurring until they're paid in full...is that correct?

I'm a new investor and have a couple of rentals, but I'm still trying to get my processes down.  Thank you for your wisdom BP community :-)