How We Handle Late Payments

At Green Ocean Property Management, we implement a system for collecting rent online. And if rent still isn’t paid on time, landlords don’t need to worry as here are the steps we take to handle late payments.

#1 We have a tenant portal

A screenshot of Green Ocean Property Management’s Tenant Portal

First and foremost, we don’t want any late rent payments so we are very proactive about it. One of the best things that we do is set up every single tenant in our system. Through their tenant portal, they can pay their rent electronically on the first day of every month.

#2 We send reminders via emails and calls

Some people just aren’t tech-savvy; others may even refuse to learn how to do it. So what we do with them is if, on the second day of the month they still haven’t paid when the due date is on the first, we will send out an email reminder. On the third day, we will give them a phone call.

But if some tenant is known to make late payments habitually, what we do is send that reminder a week earlier. We will make sure that we talk with them so that they know. By doing this, we are also aware if they paid the rent late in the past or if their rent is currently late.

#3 We abide by state laws

In the state of Massachusetts, late rent can only be charged if it’s 30 days past when it was due. You can’t charge anything in advance, so landlords and property managers have to be proactive about it. The next step after the emails on the second day and phone calls on the third day is the 14-day notice to quit. Remember that 14 days isn’t when you send it out, it is how many days they had to cure the issue. It is the first step in the eviction process to let them know their rent payment is late. A constable delivers the notice to ensure that the tenant receives it.

At the end of those 14 days, we do something called the Summary Process to Evict. It allows us to bring the situation to court and try to work this out with the tenants legally. For us, it’s actually incredibly rare; we only had to go to court once in the past two years for our tenants, because:

• We put good tenants in your units
• We qualify them
• We are proactive about our collections and communication

Our commitment

So if you or anyone else you know is looking for a proactive property manager that helps guide you through any type of late rent payments, please think of Green Ocean Property Management: where you get more than a property manager, you get peace of mind.