{"id":20373,"date":"2014-10-29T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/?p=20373"},"modified":"2014-10-28T10:59:15","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T14:59:15","slug":"late-fee-or-no-late-fee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/29\/late-fee-or-no-late-fee\/","title":{"rendered":"LATE FEE OR NO LATE FEE?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

I charge<\/strong><\/span> a $20 late fee if I don\u2019t get the rent by the seventh day of the month. Some tenants regularly pay the $20 late fee, because $20 is nothing compared to, say, a credit-card late fee.<\/p>\n

I had a tenant who promised to pay on the 11th. He changed to the 15th. Then the 20th.\u00a0 Today — October 29 — I have just one late tenant.\u00a0 She said she’s not paying because she had a stroke and is broke.\u00a0 She sounded pretty good on the phone for a stroke.\u00a0 I asked my wife, a former RN, about that: “Can you talk right if you just had a stroke?”<\/p>\n

My wife, Alice, said, “It depends what part of the brain it affected.”<\/p>\n

\"late<\/a>One guy had his foot cut off due to diabetes. That’s a decent excuse.<\/p>\n

I<\/strong> generally<\/strong><\/span> don’t allow late payers to slide into the next month. \u201cMom is sick . . . My grandmother died . . . I switched banks and they messed up my account.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why didn’t you call me?\u00a0 Why am I calling you?<\/p>\n

Maybe I should charge more than $20. Some landlords charge by the day, like $10\/day.\u00a0 But life is too short for that kind of intense bookkeeping.<\/p>\n

I have a tenant who has been late every month for 30 years.\u00a0 I hope I outlive him to get his final month’s rent.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I<\/strong><\/span> lean too hard on the tenants and get no late fee — no rent.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Yiddishe Cup is a soul band, Jewish and otherwise.\u00a0 Check out our version of Aretha’s “Respect.”\u00a0 We play a wide range of American pop music.\u00a0 Please don’t boot us out of your wedding after the hora.\u00a0 Hey, we’re better than those other wedding bands!\u00a0 We’re slicker than schmaltz laced with WD-40.\u00a0 Our newest singer is Tamar Gray.\u00a0 She works the crowd.\u00a0 Fun . . .
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n