Rent Collection: What to Do If Your Tenants Won't Pay

Owning a rental property comes with a host of undeniable benefits. These include having a passive income source, being your own boss, long-term security, tax relief, and more. While being a landlord can be a wonderful occupation, it is also not without its challenges.

Undoubtedly, one of the biggest challenges that landlords face is when tenants won't pay their rent. Rent collection is an essential part of the job and many landlords struggle to know what to do when their tenants, for whatever reason, do not pay their rent as agreed in the lease agreement.

In this blog post, we will take a look at the steps you should take when you are missing rent from your rental property's tenants. Let's get started.

Double Check Your Lease Documents

If you believe that your tenants owe you rent, it's important to first double-check your lease documents and their payment records.

Your lease documents may also include information about late fees, so this will also be worth checking out. If your tenants are indeed late with their rent payments, you can start to take action.

Sent a Late Rent Notice

Next, you should serve your tenants with a late rent notice. Basically, this is a written document reminding them that the rent is past-due and should include any late payment fees that they have now occurred.

This can be served to the tenants in person, taped to the door of the property, or sent through email.

Make a Phone Call

If your late rent notice didn't do the trick, the next step is to make contact over the phone. Remember to only do this once, otherwise, you may face accusations of harassment.

Hopefully, at this stage, you will be able to understand what happened with the missed rent payment and find a solution.

Issue a Pay or Quit Notice

This, technically speaking, is the first step in the eviction process and shows the tenant that you are serious. In Maryland, you can then file a written complaint in the District Court, asking to repossess the property and for the amount of rent due plus court costs.

Written notice of the landlord's intent to file a complaint must be issued before doing so. At this point, the tenants have 10 days after receiving the notice to pay the rent due.

If the process is still not resolved at this point, the matter may end up in court. An experienced property management company and an eviction lawyer will help you to understand and proceed through this process.