If you have been working on writing a late rent notice for use in managing your rental properties, you might have thought to look at templates for late rent notice or past due rent notice examples. There are many kinds of specific information that might need to be included in your late rent payment notice or past due rent notice template to make sure that you can use it effectively. If you have to remove someone from your property at some later date, you will need a correct and effective late rent notice to have been served to them before they are evicted from the property.

When creating important documents like this one, you need to be sure that you include all the right information in the letter. This is the way that you give legal notice to your tenants about their late rent that is due, and you need to be able to point to the fact that this notice was given when you later try to evict them if this is your plan. Being unable to provide a correct late rent notice can lead to a lot of trouble when it comes to evicting your tenants or attempting to compel them to pay the rent that they owe.

Late Rent Notices By State

What is a late rent notice?

A late rent notice is used by landlords to inform tenants that their rent payments are overdue. This is a letter that is sent after a missed payment, and it is part of the paper trail that is used to help prove the reasons for evicting a tenant down the road. The overdue rent must be paid immediately in most cases, and the letter that is sent out to indicate this needs to be drafted correctly and delivered properly per the guidelines in your state.

This is a more informal notice than an eviction notice, but tenants still need to comply with the requirements of this notice to avoid issues with their rental contracts down the road. Consider this a courteous first step in working with your tenant to secure redress for missed rent payments.

This kind of document is also known by some other names. These names are all valid and can be used interchangeably with Late Rent Notice:

  • Demand for Payment of Rent
  • Demand for Past Due Rent
  • Notice to Cure
  • Notice to Demand Payment for Failure to Pay Rent
  • Notice to Pay Rent
  • Notice to Pay Rent
  • Failure to Pay Rent Notice
  • Demand Notice for Nonpayment of Rent

Do not be concerned if you have used one of these terms when naming your document. These different names are all considered valid for this document and do not impact its usefulness.

Late Rent Notices

How to make a late rent notice?

There are some key details that must be included in your late rent notice. These items will need to be present even if there are other details that you want to include to help make the situation clearer for your tenants.

  1. Rental Property Address. The address of the rental property needs to be included in your document, and you need to be sure that it is the complete address and not just part of it. This is important, and many people neglect to completely note the address, which can lead to problems later on where tenants might indicate that they did not know that you were referring to their home.
  2. The Amount of Rent That is Due. The amount that is owed for rent that has not been paid needs to be indicated here in this section. You can also use language from the current contract that states what the payment schedule is intended to be and what should have been happening if the contract had been observed as it should have been.
  3. Stipulations. If you are allowing for some time to make up the missed rent payments, you need to be clear about the boundaries of this forgiveness period. Make sure as well that the person knows if they are required to make a lump sum payment or if you will take payments added to the next few rent agreements as a possible way to catch up on the back rent that is due.
  4. Payment Methods. This is the section where you will indicate how you will accept payment and what form the payment must be made in. You will likely not be willing to accept a check, for example. This part of the letter might give the person fair warning that they need to get cash or some other form of guaranteed payment method to deliver the payments that have been missing for their overdue rent.
  5. Where to Make Payment. This can be a tricky part of the letter to enforce, but you can at least suggest where the payment needs to be delivered to. At the end of the day, you will take a cash payment that is delivered to you at another location, but it can be easiest to direct the person who owes you money to your rental office or some other location if you want to accept their money in person. You can also provide the information for mailing the money to you if the person should wish to use this route to deliver payment.
  6. Tenant and Landlord Information. Tenant and landlord legal names need to be fully indicated on the letter, as well as the contact information for these parties. You will need to be sure that this information is fully correct so that your letter can be enforceable. If a rental company is providing rental support at this location, you will indicate the name and contact information of the rental company or management company.

Late Rent Notice Templates

Some other items that you might include:

You might also want to include information about the premises as far as whether or not there are additional spaces like a garage, a storage shed, or property that are included in the rental. Make sure that you also state if there are late fees that are being assessed and, if they are charged as a percentage, what the percentage is.

Some people will put an effective date on the letter as well. This can be ideal if you are not sending the letter via certified mail and are instead intending to hand deliver it. The effective date gives the person who is receiving the letter the starting point for their repayment period so that they know when they will be asked to move out. This can be a good idea to include, no matter how you deliver the letter. Even though this is not a legally-binding document, you will want to be as clear as possible about your expectations surrounding the payment of the rent before the next steps are taken.

How do you write a late payment letter to a tenant?

This kind of letter is just that-a letter. You can write your Late Rent Notice like a letter if you wish. This is actually the most common means of creating this kind of notice, and you will find that it can be the easiest way to draft this kind of document. Since this is not as formal a legal document as an actual eviction notice, you might find that writing this document like a letter is much easier than writing it like a contract or a more complex legal document.

While it might seem like you should use some kind of legal form to create this letter, it really is often best to just write it as a letter. You will find that most of the late rent notices that you look at, for example, will be written in letter format. This is for a good reason, and you will find that this is the most user-friendly way to create this kind of document.

Late rent notice policies vary by state

Make sure that you are aware of what the state guidelines are with regard to late rent notices. You will need to follow these guidelines so that you are compliant with the law and so that you are not causing issues that will lead to trouble evicting the person if they do not comply with your requests in your late rent notice. You will always want to be sure that you follow the letter of the law in your state when you are providing documents or any other kind of information to anyone that is a tenant.

The more closely that you adhere to state laws and guidelines, the more likely it will be that you can evict someone or compel them to make payments against the money that they owe you for back rent. You will be much less likely to be able to stand behind your demands if you had not followed the letter of the law when you were taking action to ask for money or to compel someone to pay for the rent that they owe you.

Past Due Rent Notices

When to send a late rent notice

This can vary depending on where you are renting a property. The state guidelines in your area will dictate the timeline of notice being sent to tenants who have not been paying their rent. You might be able to send out the notice as soon as the payment is past due, but there is usually a grace period that is allowed for money to come in late due to issues with checks that might have bounced or delays in payroll at people’s jobs.

It is always advisable to allow your tenants to reach out to you if they have questions about the payment date that they might have missed. They should also be instructed to be sure that they reach out if there is a reason that their payment will be late. Some rental agencies will allow a date range for rent to be due, which might be the 5th through the 10th of the month. This kind of leniency is not common, but it can be a way to make renting a bit easier for those who live from paycheck to paycheck.

The timeline for notice might also vary depending on the kind of lease that you are engaged in with the tenant. Year-long leases or leases that are paid quarterly rather than monthly might have different notice timelines per state guidelines, for example. Always remember that you can reach out to a lawyer with experience in renters and tenancy laws if you are not sure about the actions that you want to take. You will always be better off acting with clarity in these situations so that you do not run into trouble with a tenant that could have been avoided.

Notice Of Late Rents

Late Rent Notices Can be Critical To Operating a Rental Location

If you have been struggling with how to notify renters about missed or late payments, you need to have a late rent notice letter on file that you use for this need. Be sure that you always include enough detail to make your letter clear and effective, but do not view the letter as a replacement for a formal eviction notice. When you write a really effective and well-crafted late rent notice, you will be much more likely to get the compliance of your tenant that you have been looking for.

These letters are often key toward notifying renters that you intend to take the next steps if you are not satisfied with their efforts to comply with your demands. This is the first warning if you will, but that does not mean that your letter should not be convincing and well-crafted. You need to be sure you also include enough information to make the situation very clear to the person who is not paying their rent. The best late rent notice letters are full of facts and information that clearly states that the rental contract has been broken and what needs to be done about this fact.

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Tagged:EvictionLandlordLate RentNoticeReal Estate
TemplateLab December 13th, 2022
Ryan Duffy
Ryan Duffy