Late fees and late notices

Who this is for

Landlords and property managers setting how late rent is handled. Only the account owner can change the settings.

Before you start

• The late fee and its grace period are set on each lease: the Late Fee and Grace Period (days) fields when you create or edit a lease. The late fee is a flat dollar amount; $0 means no fee for that lease. A new lease's late fee starts empty, at $0: the Default late fee on the Settings Company tab is not filled in for you.
• The late notices follow your Settings: the Notifications tab, card Automation Schedule, fields Grace period and Late notice schedule.

Steps

1. On each lease, set the Late Fee and the Grace Period (days).
2. Open Settings and the Notifications tab.
3. Set the Grace period: the days after the due date before late notices can start.
4. Set the Late notice schedule: the days after that grace period to post each notice, separated by commas, such as `1, 3, 7`. Only the first three are used.
5. Click Save.

Example

James and Ana's rent of $2,200.00 is due on October 22. Their lease has a $75.00 late fee and a 5-day grace period; Settings has a 5-day grace period and the schedule `1, 3, 7`. The rent is not paid:

• Oct 23 to Oct 27: inside the grace period. Nothing happens.
• Oct 28 (22 + 5 + 1): a separate $75.00 late fee invoice is created, due 5 days later, and late notice 1 is posted.
• Oct 30 (22 + 5 + 3): late notice 2.
• Nov 3 (22 + 5 + 7): late notice 3.
• They now owe $2,200.00 + $75.00 = $2,275.00.
• From the next day, while the rent is unpaid, you get a message every day that the invoice has 3 late notices and remains unpaid.

What happens next

• Late notices are notifications inside eSamaHomes, for every tenant on the lease and for you. They are not emailed. The tenant is also told inside eSamaHomes when a late fee is added.
• The late fee is added once per rent invoice.
• Late notices stop as soon as the invoice is paid, or partly paid.
• While a tenant's bank payment is Processing, no late fee and no late notice is added.
• An invoice billed after its due date, such as a first rent already past when a lease was added, gets no late fee and no late notices.

If something looks wrong

• No late fee. The lease's Late Fee is $0, or the invoice is still inside the lease's grace period, or the invoice was billed after its due date.
• The fee and the notices came on different days. The fee follows the lease's Grace Period (days); the notices follow the Settings Grace period. Make them the same.
• A tenant got notices for rent they paid. Record their payment with Receive Payment on Rent & Payments. Notices stop once the invoice is paid.
• You want to waive a late fee. A late fee invoice can't be voided or waived in eSamaHomes yet.