Tenants are expected to pay rent on time. But some emergencies do occur and a tenant may struggle to pay rent on time or in full. Generally an honest tenant temporarily short on funds will not get evicted by a landlord for paying rent a little late in a month. But that leniency should not be stretched unduly to trigger unhealthy consequences. So the following advice can help.
Partial Pay
Be up front with the landlord about the tight situation and request for an extension. This is a more straightforward way to avoid eviction and a lawsuit. No landlord would like to lose a good tenant since it is difficult and expensive to evict and get new tenants.
So convincing the landlord to accept a portion of the rent and the rest later will be an intelligent option. You can convince the landlord to bear with you in the interim so that you can have a temporary relief with steps such as,
- Get an extension with the landlord for a few more days.
- Explain the difficulties and emphasize that they are only temporary.
- Offer to pay a portion of the rent for the time being
- Give it in writing your plan and pay by a certain date and keep the promise.
- Assure that the problem will not be a recurring one in the future
- Also offer to pay a late fee if the landlord has a late fee policy
Handle the situation seriously and do not be clever and think that you can afford to ignore the landlord’s phone calls or emails and they will swallow lame excuses.
Bouncing Check Issue
Nothing infuriates a landlord than a sneaky tenant who cuts a bouncing rent check. Not only will it ignite the landlord’s ire, but a worthless check amounts to blatant non-payment of the rent. If the landlord has a late fee policy it will kick in and if required, the landlord can terminate the tenancy.
So, when you fantastic apartments to rent in London behave responsibly and never spoil the good will. Otherwise the errant behavior will give a handle to the landlord to put you through various penalties in cases like bouncing checks. The charges can include bank charges for a returned check, probably $10 to $20 for every returned item plus a few dollars extra for the trouble caused to the house owner.
