Hi, I am renting via Openrent and my landlord has chosen to take rent payments via open rent. I like to pay rent via Standing Order so that I don’t have to always remember to move money.
If the payment date falls on a weekend or a holiday standing orders usually go out on the next working day. My questions is, will my rent payment be considered late in this instance or Openrent system does take holidays and weekends into account?
Hi Ali,
With Rent Collection activated, payment will be late where it’s not received by the rent payment date that’s on the contract. You can also view what this date is on your dashboard.
Our email prompts can be disregarded where both you and the landlord are aware that rent is due, and that it’s just a couple days late.
George
Thanks @George. It’s good to know but may I suggest that rent collection system should be have holidays and weekends incorporated so that rent can be paid via standing order. Most banks don’t process SOs on weekends.
This game is all about agreement between parties and what a third party (Citizens Advice, Lawyer, Court) might consider a reasonable or unreasonable clause. I have three suggestions.
Bite the bullet and anticipate your rent will be paid up to 4 days late where both weekends and bank holidays get in the way and your rent was due on the Friday. (Bad luck but doesn’t often happen!)
You could negotiate with your tenant applicant, suggesting rent is set by standing order to leave their account 3 days prior to when it must be received latest. This approach would accommodate weekends and bank holidays (mostly) and ensures they do not inadvertently default.
4 days would be even better but I can’t help thinking that feels a bit too cheeky, especially since you will mostly be getting paid early.
For those landlords who might feel uncomfortable with this, a third option is to advise your new tenants which is the latest date -month on month- to accommodate weekends and bank holidays while still paying last-minute but without incurring a default position. To do this, get your diary out and look where weekends/bank holidays interfere with your due date. This method by which to pay is no longer called a ‘standing order’ but is technically referred to as an ‘automatic bill payment’ i.e. once the dates for each month are manually instructed to their bank, it is dealt with automatically thereafter. If you employ this strategy, you may need to alter the wording in your AST (Tenancy Agreement) regarding payment method.
The third option is the most precise if not pedantic but you run the risk of it going pear-shaped if -and by that I mean ‘when’- your tenant forgets to instruct the bank of further payment dates towards the end of the initial Fixed Term. Nothing wrong with emailing them the new dates, however, but you’ll need to diarise that or you will forget yourself.
This third option is fairly high maintenance, frankly and may be interpreted as a little ‘over-the-top’ or even intimidating. It may also be a potential problem for tenants because they won’t have memorised a specific and unchanging date when the money leaves their account. I would only consider using this one where the tenant applicant has expressed anxiety about rent being paid late because of these pesky weekends and bank holidays. I have to say, it is the option that has the greatest potential to inadvertently trip either of you up.
The genius of theory over practice?!
Three options, however. No reason why you can’t discuss these with your tenants. What you want are tenants who care that they are not late with the rent and are happy to take responsibility that that means ‘date you receive’ not ‘date it is sent.’
True to say, some tenants worry about being late with their rent and may well prefer the ‘three days prior to being due’ option. But, it is arguably challengeable.
The easiest option is to ‘bite the bullet.’
I present three options because we’re all different as are our applicants.
For those interested… what do I do myself?
I assess whether the tenant applicant is happy to set up a standing order three days prior (it is their responsibility to make plans to pay on time after all) and so far, they always have been so and it has not caused me any issues. My AST firms the logic of it up by reminding signatories that responsibility for rent to be received by the landlord account by ‘due date latest’ is theirs and not that of the bank or any other third party.
Good luck!
Peter
Member NLA
A couple of days is neither here nor there but I always thought it went out prior to the weekend or holiday not after which makes more sense. Its no big deal though and I would always allow up to a week before chasing them up.
I respectfully disagree that rent being late by a day or two is neither here nor there. It is, in my view, too casual, contravenes a fundamental clause of the tenancy and one which is currently implicated in the majority of evictions by landlords I.e. rental default, as qualified elsewhere on this site. A relaxed approach to rent being received late has a natural propensity - not surprisingly- to indicate it doesn’t much matter.
It does.
Stay formal, firm and fair.
Fortunately Peter I have a great relationship with my tenants so no I do not worry about a couple of days. Even banks can be fickle. My world will not fall in and I choose my tenants carefully and keep contact with them. Obviously it is different for other people but since I started meeting and greeting my own tenants I have not had a problem. One of my tenants is in his 5th year with me and the others have rolled on their tenancies. Occasionally due to bank holiday the rent arrives a day late but that is the bank structure not the tenants holding back payment.
Tenant ask how to pay rent… he logged in click the property and looked everywhere… there is nothing to prompt to settle Rent.
I can try to show him how when I see him, but do you have a step by step video to show how… it seems that it is not quite obvious how to pay rent… after all the platform objective is the RENT ???
Hi David, could you give us a bit more info? Alternatively, if you need direct support, you would get a better result if you contacted us here, as then our team can see the information for this tenancy.
Sam
I am now in a very serious situation because my tenants are unable to pay their rent… FOUR set of rents are due. I have went to see one of the tenant and have sat down and went through your OpenRent platform to see where rent can be settled. With great disappointment, I am unable to find a link or tab to go into the payment page… PLEASE PLEASE HELP… 4 RENTS, that is approximately £2000 rents not being paid because your unfriendly system don’t have a link or payment page easy enough for tenants to pay my rents!!!
I desperately and urgently request you to send a payment link for the tenants to settle their link so that my rents can be received as soon as possible.
I look forward to hearing from you soon,
Dave Lau
07799218013
Hi David,
Your tenants can find the details to pay their rent using the link below, adding the property ID to the end after the slash.
We also email them when the tenancy has been finalised instructing them how to do so.
If they have any more trouble making the payment, we advise that they get in touch here so we can resolve this.
Matthew
Hi Matthew
I just made paid my rent but the money did not go through, even though the money has gone out of my account.It’s very scary for me as I always use the same account details for the last 11 months but it’s not working today.
I am really worried as I don’t know what to do. I don’t to spoil my relationship with our landlord. Can you help me please?
S. Chohan
Hi Surinder,
It some times takes a couple of hours for payments to reach the destination account so hopefully the transfer has now been completed.
However, if you have any further questions then you are welcome to contact our customer support team by clicking the blue “need help” button at the bottom of your screen.
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