You need to respond immediately when a tenant begins to make late payments on their rent. While you’re likely concerned about access to the funds you’re entitled to, light pockets aren’t the real danger when it comes to allowing late rent payments. Under New Jersey, late rent can become an expectation of the tenant if it is allowed enough times. That means that your options when responding to late payments are going to become a lot more limited. For the sake of your business, don’t allow that to happen.
You need to respond immediately and forcefully by sending your tenant a Notice to Cease. This notice is the first step in a process that may lead to either a more reliable tenant or an eviction. If you’d like to learn more about responding to late payments, you can talk to our lawyers. Until then, you may find the information below helpful.
Sending a Notice to Cease
A Notice to Cease is a warning to your tenant that they have 30 days to stop behavior that is violating the lease. Late payments are a violation of most every lease, and you can still submit these notices even if you only have a verbal agreement. You do have to give the tenant the chance to correct their actions, and if they do, you should have few problems with late rents in the future.
Tenants don’t always respond to these notices, however. If they continue to deliver the rent late, you now have the option of moving directly to the Notice to Quit. This is the notice that lets them know that they have only 30 days to vacate the property. If they don’t respond to this notice, you can move directly to an eviction lawsuit. Our lawyers can help you with that.
Other behaviors covered by the Notice to Cease
Late rent payments are just one reason you can take advantage of a Notice to Cease. In fact, you can use this notice to address a range of unwanted behavior from your tenants. All of the following are valid reasons for which you can send a notice…
- Tenant exhibits disorderly conduct that is disruptive to neighbors or other tenants.
- Is in violation of one or more of your stated rules and regulations.
- Is in violation of your lease or rental agreement, not including non-payment situations.
In all cases, this is the first step before a tenant can be evicted for the problem. Please remember that you cannot send a notice for all types of behavior. If you want to prevent behavior that isn’t forbidden by the law or your current lease agreement, you should prepare a new lease agreement for when the current one expires.
Talk to us about late rent problems
Our lawyers can give you the advice you need when you are having a problem with late rent. We’ll help you understand your options, and we can also handle your property management and rent collection for you.