Lease payments are due on or before the 15th of each month.
Your payment needs to be received in our office (not postmarked) by the date specified in your lease, almost always the 15th.
$4/day/person. Up to $20/day for 5BR
All payments received after this date are assessed a late fee of $4 per day, per person. This can add up quickly! 5 days, 4 people, $4 dollars = $100 in late fees! It is important to realize that this charge is per person on an account, not per person that is late. So, if you have a 5 person lease, and the account is late, even if it was one person who hasn’t paid, its a $20 ($4 per person, 5 people) charge per day. This additional rent charge for delinquent accounts is based on your joint and several liability for the account, and the terms of the lease are that any account that is not in good standing has a charge per person per day in total. Please don’t be late! 🙂
The account is delinquent, not the payment per se
Delinquent accounts are accounts that have a past due balance. The charges accrue for each and every day that the account is past due. This is often because someone missed an installment payment, but it can also be delinquent if you had a specific charge added to your account, say for a previous delinquency or for maintenance and such and did not add that amount to your payment. Payments might be received after the 15th but the account has a negative balance because someone prepaid: then that would not be a delinquent account. But everyone might have paid on time and yet you have a delinquent account because the balance is not zero. Something worth knowing in this regard is how payments are applied: first in, first out. This works exactly like a credit card account: payments are applied to the oldest charges first, and a non-zero balance for the previous month means delinquent charges.
The 15th means the 15th
Holidays, personal catastrophes, network outages? Payments are due on the 15th. If that’s a Sunday, please ensure delivery by Saturday. If its a national holiday, then payment is due so it is in the office before the holiday. The 15th… means the 15th. Plan ahead, or better yet, setup automatic payments and fuggeditaboudit.
Lots of ways to pay, even at night on on holidays
Pay online through your tenant portal. Even setup automatic payments and never be late again. A
We can also accept credit cards in person or over the phone, but please remember that our overall lease amount and the payments reflect a cash discounted price. You may not be able to pay over the phone on a national holiday or Sunday, so please plan ahead. You usually can pay with credit card online.
Bad accounts & returned checks = $50
Returned checks (NSF) are assessed a minimum $50 fee + late fees. Any tenant who has an NSF check must pay with money order in the future. We reserve the right to collect the rent with one check even if we have accepted separate checks. NSF’d ePayments are subject to the same rules and fees as regular “bounced” checks. Failed ePayments that are rejected because of bad account data are subject to a late fee from the date the payment was originally due.
Please keep track among yourselves, and waiving late rent doesn’t waive our rights
If you pay individually, note that you are still co and several liable for the apartment and the rent. It is not our responsibility to tell you who owes what, although we will always do our best to try to help you sort it out if you run into problems. We record the checks that are received and the amount of rent is expected to be paid in full, regardless of who has paid what.
Acceptance of late rent does not waive the rights of Elkins Apartments with respect to the lease agreement. Failure to enforce late fees is not a waiver of rights.
Please just pay on time…its a hassle for all of us when you don’t
Some of this may seem harsh; however, we simply want you to be aware ahead of time so you can avoid any issues. We don’t want your bonus money (though we will certainly take it): we just need to be paid on time so we don’t have to carry your debt and use staff time to remind you, etc. We’d rather spend the time helping ensure you have the best possible experience with us!