Collections is an essential part of the property management business.
We have an extensive collections process that starts before the months starts and ends when the tenant either catches up on all balances or they are out of the house. In short we use late fees, calls texts, 3 day notices delivered to the door and emailed statements as methods to collect before we end up filing for eviction at some point between the 15th and 25th of the month depending on the situation..
We do work with tenants who communicate with us and we feel have a good opportunity to catch up. If we think a tenant is not likely to catch up we are less likely to work with them to help catch up. Also we give more help to long time good tenants as opposed to new tenants that have immediate issues upon moving in.
Our process offers plenty of opportunities for tenants to communicate with us. We move quick enough that we don’t let tenants string us out yet offer enough time before finalizing eviction that if the tenant has a temporary hardship they can bring together resources to catch up on their rent.
If the tenant leaves the property still owing a balance, that is greater than the deposit held, we can give you the information to pursue through your own collections company or we can also pass on that information to our own collections company that will pursue them.
In general, we do not charge the owners for collections. However, assessed late fees and 3 day notice delivery fees get paid by tenants and go to offset collections cost. Pricing for evictions is described on the pricing page here.
Here is a link to our collections manual which is constantly growing.
