not paying correct rent

[brains]

Hi

I have tenants from a couple of my IPs coming in to the real estate and paying what ever amount they like, eg: say the rent on one property is $185/week, the guy pays $200 one week, $120 the next, $320 the next and the property manager sort of works it out to the best of her ability (which isnt real good).

Ive recieved my statement for Feb and it shows he paid 3 x $200 and 1 x $400 = $1000 for a time period of 45 days when the rent for the property is $185/week. So $1000 doesnt seem enough and my property manager just says "dont worry it will work out in the long run"

Am i asking too much to get them to ask the tenant to pay the exact amount each week?

Has anyone come across this before?

Any advice? Sack the property manager?

 

[Kevin Hockey]

Hi Brains,

We do have occassions when a tenant will pay an amount different from the agreed weekly rental amount, however it shouldn't be less than the agreed figure and they shouldn't be allowed to be behind.

"It" shouldn't be left to work out in the long run. By my calculations they are behind $110. Allowing them to pay without a structure becomes confusing to everyone, the tenant, agency, and you, the owner.

Depending on whether you like your PM or not, probably a better idea might be to educate them. Generally I find if the tenants are paying they are just taking liberty of the agency not imposing some form of structure, it's not that they are habitual non-payers.

What are the tenants like otherwise??

I'd keep a close eye on it for the next month or 2!!

Kev

www.nundahrealestate.com.au

 

[geoffw]

I've had one tenant pay three months in advance. I didn't complain on that!

A possibility is that the tenant's pay cycle doesn't coincide with rent payments. I had that happen with a tenant on the dole- I changed pay dates to coincide with with the dole cheques, and there has not been a problem since.

The PM should be on the ball. They should have good software- if they can't keep track, they need better software. An Excel spreadsheet would do a better job in this case!

 

[Kevin Hockey]

Good point Geoff,

We use Console Gateway and my PM gets a printout every day. If they haven't paid they get a call. After 7 days (which we have to wait by law) they get a notice of remedy breach.

You are a wealth of knowledge young Geoff.

Kev

www.nundahrealestate.com.au

 

[asy]

Brains,

I concur with the above, if your property manager had decent software they wouldn't have a problem with this payment style.

Although I agree with Kevin on the legalities (like not being behind...) just looking at the amounts and guessing isn't really good enough.

We have console at my agency too, it's quite good, and very functional. Tenants can pay any amount they like, and the software works out where they are paid up to, but only rolls over a full week at a time. So, for instance, if a tenant is supposed to pay $200 per week, and they come in and pay $220, then the software will roll them over a week (show them paid up to another week) and hold $20 in credit.

If, however, they only pay $195, then they don't roll the week over, and are at risk of showing up on the arrears list. (Not a good thing!).

The PM can, at any time, go into the tenant's ledger and see where they are paid up to and what credit, if any, they have.

The other thing is that at the end of month, the payment to owner will only pay out the full weeks.

I don't know how your property manager is doing receipts, but in most states the legislation says that they MUST have the 'paid to' date on the receipt. I wonder when the tenant thinks they are paid up to???

hope this helps,

asy

 

[D.T.]

I know a few ppl here who set up an automatic debit transaction that happens on a certain day of every fortnite for a certain amount.

This seems like quite a bit less hassle, a bit like set and forget. Dont forget to check your account tho

 

[brains]

Thanks guys

The PM uses Console Gateway, she faxed me the tenant leger and it was written on the bottom. The tenant leger was no help as it shows exactly what my statement showed and that was $1000 isnt enough for 45 days.

The fact is the money recived doesnt reconcile with the days. Im not a PM so i dont fully understand it, i'll call her today and see if i can sort it out. (previous correspndence has been by email/fax)

 

[handyandy]

Hi Brains

As asy has outlined the software should account the money correctly by weeks paid with any odd amount held in credit. I use various PM's and without fail this is what the monthly statements show.

It may be that your PM is not fully conversant witht he software and is creating the problem by not entering the payment correctly.

Cheers

 

[brains]

Handy,

Thats what it looks like to me, what it be ok to scan the tenant leger and attach to my post on here. (Leaving out sensitive info of course)

 

[asy]

Please do that, brains,

White out the bank details

The other thing is, ring the property manager, and ask her to print you out a 'Tenant Ledger' for the entirety of the tenancy. That should correlate with your statements.

Can you post them both here, and let's see what's going on?

The other info required is, were there any rental increases during the lease?

asy

 

[brains]

I attempted to scan the tenant leger and post it on here, beacuse it was faxed and i had to reduce the file size to fit on here, it wasnt of readable quality.

I rang my PM today and sorted it over the phone. What happened was she made a mistake on a payment and instead of going back and erasing the week the mistake was for just added on another week , which meant there were 7 days too many for the rent recieved. (or somnething like that )

Thanks for the advice guys

 

[Jas]

One thing that I caught recently was one of my tenants has been paying odd amounts since she started renting. The invoice I get show how much she paid, and how much she has in credit.

The problem is that she keeps paying extra, and the credit keeps going up. Then she doesn't pay a week or two and the credit goes down. With all the amounts going in and out it has taken me some time to work out that the agency hadn't updated their system with the increased rent (rent went up in Jan).

When I discovered it, they where very apoligetic and backdated things, but the credit made it hard to track...

Jas

 

[brains]

I agree, i wish the agent would collect the correct rent only. I mentiond this to my PM and she replied that they dont give change.

eg: The rent is $185/week, if the tenant gives her $200
then thats how much they take rather than giving the tenant $15 back cause they "dont give change" and the $15 goes in credit.

Your right, it makes any stuff ups hard to trace.