Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Landlord/Tenant Law Late Fees
My husband & I are disabled & on SS. We get paid the 3rd of every month. We pay our rent by money order to a property management company here in town. We walk the rent payment in so we have a reciept of our payment. We have NEVER been late on our rent & have lived here for 3 years. On July 3 of this past week, we went to the office to pay our rent @ 2:30pm to find the office closed with a note on the door stating they would re-open on July 7. We went to pay rent today, and we were told that we HAVE to pay their late fee. We protested, and were told that they have a drop box & that we should have left our rent payment in the drop box. We have been burned with this by a previous management company, as they claimed that they never got it and we didn't have a reciept to prove that we paid our rent. That is why we WALK our payment in & get a reciept for it. They accepted our rent payment today, and then has us served with a 3 day notice this evening for the late fee. We want to know if this is legal for them to do, as THEY closed their office before the close of business on July 3rd.

Thank You For Your Time.

Asked on 7/07/08, 11:38 pm

Robert L. Bennett Law offices of Robert L. Bennett

0 users found helpful

0 attorneys agreed

Re: Landlord/Tenant Law Late Fees

Sorry,but it is up to you to pay on time. You should have taken payment to the Post Office, and have it mailed on July 3.

They have no obligation to keep their office open.

You are welcome for the time, and I regret not giving a happier answer.

However, late fees have to be in your lease, as, technically, there is no provision for same in the Codes that cover this area.

Good luck!

Answered on 7/08/08, 9:52 am

Keywords

Match Any Match All

Country

State

Area of Law