Moving rent payment date

Landlord Discussion
1

Hi Everyone,
I hope you are all keeping well .
I have a question that I would like to ask your opinions. My tenant moved in 1st April this year, he paid the rent every month, but never on time. My agent sent me an email yesterday saying the the tenant made a request if we can agree to move the payment date from 1st to 15th and it is due to his salary situation.
What would you do?
Many thanks
Sandy

2

Sounds very reasonable. I would just agree it informally as changing the contractual dates can cause problems if you ever need to serve notice. Tell the agent to just agree verbally that they can pay on the 15th but that it will still cover the same period as before.

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3

Many thanks David.
I will take your feedback into consideration.

4

The only way I would do it personally would be to take a pro rata payment of rent up to the 15th. As mortgage company would likely request this of us.

It also cuts out the fact that tenants can become very ‘confused’ at the end of the tenancy when they are asked to pay 1 months rent but will only be in the property for a couple of weeks longer (as it would be in your case).

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5

Thanks user40. That sounds better.

6

One of my tenants got a new job with a different salary date and wanted to change their payment date so they did a part payment to the new rent date. I would say that’s the best thing to do because it means they are paying the right amount at the right time.

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7

exactly what I did with a couple of my tenants

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8

My view is that it’s better if the rent payment date and the tenancy periods are aligned. It can cause confusion later if they are not, but it is perfectly possible to take a pro-rata payment.

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9

My tenants had their pay date changed and asked for it to be on 25th instead of 21st. Only a few days I know but could they not pay you the outstanding days up to 15th then on the 15th thereafter. I didnt bother doing that as its only 4 days.

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10

As I said, its better if the dates are aligned, which means its better to agree the later payment date informally without any interim payments.

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11

I want to change my tenant payment date, but y can find where the option is in the webpage. Can anybody let me know where “edit contract” or “manage contract” is in OpenRent web?

Thank you

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12

I’ve been in this position. Would suggest he makes an interim payment of 2weeks and then change date on contract to 15th, otherwise there will be problems in future.

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13

Its the opposite of what you say Jennifer5. The problems can arise if you do that.

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14

That’s my policy as well. Take a pro rata payment. Saves a lot of hassle trying to remember.

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15

Thats fine, I’ve done this its doesn’t matter so long as you get the rent. The contract stays the same and when the person moves out you work it all out then.
Anything that makes life easier for the tenant is always good.

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16

Hi

Definitely do not change the contract date as agents have done this for some of my properties in the past then it was a nightmare when needing to issue notice !!

100% keep the date on the contract the same but just let the tenant pay on the 15th, there is nothing wrong with this.

If you change the date on the contract this can cause problems for you as mistakes can easily be made when issuing notice.

DO NOT take the agents word for it if they say move the contract date as (some) agents make many mistakes (trust me I have used a lot of them) and this is why I now manage all properties myself.

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