Delinquent customers always make me laugh... they'll give any excuse possible... I used to be an associate at a facility where, no matter what we did, delinquency and A/R were terrible... never below 20% by month end, despite many many reminder and collection calls, and I used to get yelled at, or pleaded with on a daily basis over waiving fees, or giving them access when they weren't supposed to.... I became immune to it a long time ago.

The funny thing is... in Rhode Island... you cannot even deny access to the customer's space, or facility, until the customer is MORE than 30 days late... so basically when I was an associate at that facility we'd see customers not pay for a month, and move out on the 29th of the month, and nothing much we could do about it.... I am familiar with delinq. and lien procedures in more than one state, and RI is far and away the most drawn out and long that I have seen.

The good news is that I manage a facility now (was managing 2 most of last year), but the one that I run now, which is also in Rhode Island, and my A/R by month end is usually around 4%, depite the state delinquency and lien laws... on occasion I will have a mad customer about late fees, but after getting yelled at constantly when I was an assistant at another store... it doesn't bother me at all to have the occasional late person yelling

Hey, manager. You should waive this fee for me. I'm only late 3 or 4 times a year.

Why, tenant, I would be more than happy to waive this fee for you. Oh, by the way, could you give me $100.00.

No way, why would I want to do that.

Cause, you just asked me to give you $xx dollars. I'm just greedier than you are. I think that is a fair trade, don't you.

Thanks for your rent and late fee that you just paid me. Please pay on time.

(Yes, I have done this. More than once.)

I had a regional manager that had a tenant complain about paying late fees while he was in an office in Tampa.

"You don't like paying late fees?"

"No, I don't"

"Thank pay your rent on time!"

True story. I heard it.

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Bob Taylor (Astro)
Blue Ridge Self Storage
Cashiers, NC

We just notified everyone at the end of last year as part of the new rental contracts that the late fees we charge would be going in keeping with the limits allowed by law. We had been charging only $15 even for those tenants who rent many units and who's rent was many hundreds of dollars (the worst case being the one who's rent was over a thousand a month but still only paid $15 and was late every month) - now we've let folks know our late fees are $10, $15, $20 and then 15%, dependent upon the rent.
With two exceptions the people who have rents in the many hundreds have all paid on time this year - it will be interesting to see what those two pay (as they often were late and just included the $15 fee when they finally paid) when they do...
We do waive late fees for those who are rarely late, and have decided we will reduce the higher late fees to those who have a legitimate issue with paying them the first time around...

It amazes me how a perfect stranger will tell you his or her entire life story, every job they lost, every divorce, every pet they ever owned to get out of a late fee!!
I want to go hire a violin player....... but I might be late in paying him.

i had a person call me and tell me he was late and i should wave the fee because he got a potatoe chip stuck in his throat and had to go to the hospital!! my reply was really? and yet you can call and talk to me? wow
and has it been stuck there for the whole 7 day grace period?
Sir we do not waive late fees, ever for any reason, and I think you should sue the potatoe chip company for making an unsafe product.

we do push the autobill alot and i usually ge told i dont have a credit card....
I dont mind the late fees or the people yelling at me about them but I sure as hell absalutly hate the grace period!! we watch like a hawk and have actually stopped a few people from getting out with thier stuff knowing they owe the rent! And they come in after the office closes I guess hoping we left the house for shopping.

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Someone earlier in the thread mentioned this, but what annoys me more than anything is the 5-day grace period. When I explain that rent is due on the first, and then tell them that late fees are applied after the 5th, 15th, and then the 32nd day they're late, their usual response is: "So rent is due on the 5th?"

If rent is due on the 1st (which it is at my company) then charge them a fee at the close of business on the 1st.

I just started working at a self storage facility a few months ago. The two people working prior to me were fired and myself and one other employee was hired to replace them. They NEVER made collection calls. Some of our accounts are a year over due. I've done what I can (I'm in charge of the collections) to work with as many people as I can, because right now we're in a situation where we are trying to keep as many butts in the seats as possible -- but you won't believe how many people on my call list have just had an immediate relative die.

I mean, come on, the first three people that told me that I said "I'm sorry, just call us back and let us know when we can expect payment."

After that I had to turn into Mr Hyde:

customer: "My father died last night."

me: "Well your account is 4 months over due."

customer: "Can I call you back after this weekend, I need to lay my father to rest."

me: "You can call back whenever is convenient for you, however, I am letting you know that if your payment isn't in by suchandsuch a date, your unit will be auctioned."

This was the conversation I had after (I am not exaggerating) the tenth person in 2 months to tell me a family member had died. I know this is a slightly poor area, but my honest opinion is, if you can't afford storage, don't use it! It isn't my problem what bills you have to pay this month, my problem is what bills this company has to pay--and part of my job is collecting the money we need to pay those bills.

Wait until 3 months down the road when the same customer who told you their mother died last month will die again last night. Really? Because I wrote that in the notes 3 months ago...so how could she have died again last night?

Sometimes their mom has died 3 times, once in January, then again in June and then in November.

First, never use the term "grace period". This tells the tenant that the end of that time is really when the rent is due.

Tell the tenant what their due date is, and then tell them that they are late the next day. (no mention of grace period). I suppose that you could tell the tenant that the day after their rent is due, you exercise your right of lien on their space and belongings. We don't actually take possesion of the things until you start your liem/auction processing, but. if they believe that they may lose their things, they may pay sooner.

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Bob Taylor (Astro)
Blue Ridge Self Storage
Cashiers, NC

I just inform them, my higher power does not wave lates fees.

Oh MY!!! I read this a few days ago when I was not yet accepted as a member and nearly spit my water out laughing so hard!!! Somehow I can just picture this altho that has not happened to me.
I don't have any horror stories with people being overboard because its simply, you will pay your fees first and then the rent. Red lock is happy to gaurd your belongings and when I'm paid in full it will come off.
We do allow one waive per year per tenant. The light company doesn't care what your reason for paying late is so why tell us!
We do have alot of the same people that will pay the fee month after month without blinking too and their extra fee is appreciated except when they go so far that they are in every other auction and pay up a couple days before hand.

Once in auction status cash or money order only, altho we had a bad money order once, but hey he never did show his face after the cops showed up looking for him since he was passing bad money orders all over the Sunshine State, he went to auction.

I do also like the idea that I read somewhere here about only waiving it if they go auto credit card, or waiving the ADMIN fee upon move in by setting up auto credit card ! Saves alot of headache and chasing them down because lets face it, no one wants to auction off someone elses things. I was once told I was being rude by thouroughly explaining the auction procedure so that the delinquent tenant in another state realized just how important it was that she paid when she told me "'ll pay you before the auction, when is it!" sadly she did not pay.

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No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

This has been a great thread! I'm a little behind in reading Self Storage Talk, but thoroughly enjoy this! Thanks for sharing, everyone.

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Julie