Re: Lost Payment, A Three Day Pay or Quit Notice, and A Late Fee

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Re: Lost Payment, A Three Day Pay or Quit Notice, and A Late Fee

Posted by Renee on May 08, 2001 at 04:41:50:
In Reply to: Re: Lost Payment, A Three Day Pay or Quit Notice, and A Late Fee posted by New York Tenant on May 07, 2001 at 09:40:10:
Unfortunately, things sometimes get lost in the mail. The problem is that this is a coomon "excuse" that Landlords hear. You probably are not aware of it, but the copy of the money order is a scam that is often perpetrated on LL's and others, so I am not surprised that your landlord is skeptical. The scam goes like this .... someone purchases a money order made out to X & Y Property Management. They keep the top portion that is the negotiable part and change the name of the payee and change the name either to cash it or pay other bills and try to convince LL that a replacement is in the mail. Which, of course, never comes and does buy the tenant some extra time to come up with the rent while they have the use of the original for other bills.
You will probably get a notice to pay or quit if you don't send in a payment for the month in question and you do owe late charges since LL has not received payment and really has no proof of mailing. Maybe you can contact a local church or charity to help you in this rough time. That is an awful big chunk of money to lose when you have to work all month just to pay that - as most people do.
You may not be as absent minded as I am, but might I suggest that you look all around the house really well. It may have dropped some place. A couple of months back, I wrote all my checks for the beginning of the month and had a stack of envelopes to mail. As I was going out the door, I remembered I had forgotten something and placed the stack of envelopes on the dryer so that I could take my shoes off before going back into the kitchen. Well - later that month I did my online reconciliation only to find that the check for my car payment hadn't cleared. I was very upset with the bank and post office thinking one of them screwed up. I ended up having to pay $27 for a stop payment and re-issuing a check. The very next day, I moved the washer and dryer to wash the floor underneath them and guess what I found!!! I could have saved myself $27 if I had just washed that darned floor a day earlier.
Also - if the check is returned to you because it was undeliverable for some reason - don't open the envelope. Make a photo copy of it as proof of why it was not delivered and hand it over to management asking that they forgive the late payment fee since it was not your fault. In a case like this I always forego the late fee if I have proof positive such as a stop payment on the original chack or an envelope showing a reason for non-delivery. Some places don't, but my only concern is getting the rent money to pay the mortgage on the building and once I have the rent check and proof that it was not the tenant's fault I see no need to be punitive. Good Luck!!

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: Unfortunately, things sometimes get lost in the mail.  The problem is that this is a coomon "excuse" that Landlords hear.  You probably are not aware of it, but the copy of the money order is  a scam that is often perpetrated on LL's and others, so I am not surprised that your landlord is skeptical.  The scam goes like this .... someone purchases a money order made out to X & Y Property Management.  They keep the top portion that is the negotiable part and change the name of the payee and change the name either to cash it or pay other bills and try to convince LL that a replacement is in the mail.  Which, of course, never comes and does buy the tenant some extra time to come up with the rent while they have the use of the original for other bills.

: You will probably get a notice to pay or quit if you don't send in a payment for the month in question and you do owe late charges since LL has not received payment and really has no proof of mailing.  Maybe you can contact a local church or charity to help you in this rough time.  That is an awful big chunk of money to lose when you have to work all month just to pay that - as most people do.

: You may not be as absent minded as I am, but might I suggest that you look all around the house really well.  It may have dropped some place.  A couple of months back, I wrote all my checks for the beginning of the month and had a stack of envelopes to mail.  As I was going out the door, I remembered I had forgotten something and placed the stack of envelopes on the dryer so that I could take my shoes off before going back into the kitchen.  Well - later that month I did my online reconciliation only to find that the check for my car payment hadn't cleared.  I was very upset with the bank and post office thinking one of them screwed up.  I ended up having to pay $27 for a stop payment and re-issuing a check.  The very next day, I moved the washer and dryer to wash the floor underneath them and guess what I found!!!  I could have saved myself $27 if I had just washed that darned floor a day earlier. 

:  Also - if the check is returned to you because it was undeliverable for some reason - don't open the envelope.  Make a photo copy of it as proof of why it was not delivered and hand it over to management asking that they forgive the late payment fee since it was not your fault.  In a case like this I always forego the late fee if I have proof positive such as a stop payment on the original chack or an envelope showing a reason for non-delivery.  Some places don't, but my only concern is getting the rent money to pay the mortgage on the building and once I have the rent check and proof that it was not the tenant's fault I see no need to be punitive.  Good Luck!!


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