Managing Tenants and Their Rent Payments
Most leases and rental payments are required to be paid on a monthly basis. There is no specified law on the intervals of the payments or the dates when a tenant's rent is due. The first of each month is a commonly, easy to remember, date that is used. In most cases, rent is paid in advance. There is also no law that requires a certain grace period. A landlord, if he or she techniquely wanted to, could terminate any tenants if they didn't pay on time. In most cases, landlords will charge late fees for late payments or bounced checks. This is smart to do because these landlords are able to keep the room occupied while, in most cases, still collect the rent. For more details on the Ohio laws on late fees, check Ohio's landlord-tenant statutes.
From a management perspective, one of your major goals as a landlord is to maintain full occupancy in your properties. Now if your kicking people out for having rent a couple of days late, then you are not doing too swell of a job. At the same time, are these tenants always paying their rent late? Could they be a potential risk factor by not paying at all? Do you have other clients that are looking for residence? In nearly all cases, it is a bad move to kick out residents, even if they do have a tendency to not pay on time. There may be some situations where your tenants are always disturbing your other tenants by being too loud, or maybe they are constantly breaking things. It is safe to say that these are poor tenants and you might be better off without them.
For landlords who charge monthly rental payments, they are typically allowed to raise the rent with a one month prior notice. So for many of you college students out there, this is nice to know! If you are cutting your payments close with the income your making, it would be wise to find a way to set some money aside to cover any potential rent increases. I am glad that I looked into this because I am most likely moving into an apartment myself at the end of summer. With a fixed-term lease, the landlord may not raise the rent during the lease, unless the increase is specifically called for in the lease, or the tenant agrees.
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