Increasing Fees

dperry

Does anybody (in California specifically) know if pre-lien fees and lien fees can be increased or if there are guidelines about it.
We have most often the same group of people who are late and go into pre-lien every single month.
So if we can raise our fees it may discourage that from happening. 
Our pre-lien fee is only 20.00 and lien fee is minimum 100.00.
I'd love to raise those for example p/l fee 30.00 or more and the lien fee from 100.00 to 150.00 minimum. 
Any suggestions or advice? 
Thank you,
Diane

MamaDuke7

You would have to mail a notice to all tenants with a 30-day notice that the change was taking place.  Just like a rent rate increase.  Any changes to the terms of the lease require this in CA.

rmason

We raised our lien fee from $85 to $115 with notice to all tenants.  Didn't decrease number of auctions, but we sure got a lot of phone calls asking why their rent was being increased.  Should have used larger print at top of letter that said: "Please read entire letter before calling!"

ESS

rmason said:

  Should have used larger print at top of letter that said: "Please read entire letter before calling!"

They'll still call  

sonyawiprud

dperry said:

Does anybody (in California specifically) know if pre-lien fees and lien fees can be increased or if there are guidelines about it.
We have most often the same group of people who are late and go into pre-lien every single month.
So if we can raise our fees it may discourage that from happening. 
Our pre-lien fee is only 20.00 and lien fee is minimum 100.00.
I'd love to raise those for example p/l fee 30.00 or more and the lien fee from 100.00 to 150.00 minimum. 
Any suggestions or advice? 
Thank you,
Diane

Hi! Are you using California's late fee schedule? I switched a couple months ago, sent out warning letters a month in advance and some of my repeat offenders actually started paying before the ten day late fee since that is now 15% of the rent. As far as I know, there is no regulation on fixed fees. Good luck!

sonyawiprud

rmason said:

We raised our lien fee from $85 to $115 with notice to all tenants.  Didn't decrease number of auctions, but we sure got a lot of phone calls asking why their rent was being increased.  Should have used larger print at top of letter that said: "Please read entire letter before calling!"

Same thing happened to me, spent a month fielding calls from people on auto pay asking if they are still on auto pay and then other people asking what the letter means "change in late fee schedule" at the top of the page! HOWEVER,  guess who didn't call and ask us what it meant? You guessed it, none of my repeat offenders questioned the letter or the fee!! UGH!