[ChihuahuaMomma]

First question: How long of a grace period after rent day do you get before you get a 3 day pay or vacate?

Second question: Is it legal for them to tape it on my door without an envelope? I mean my first and last name are on there.

BTW, I live in Washington State.

[Fr_Chuck]

Is there any "grace" period in your lease. And in my state yes you can tape them to the door.

[ChihuahuaMomma]

There is five days. My rent is due on the 1st. Today is the 8th. What about in Washington? I have to abide by HIPPA privacy policies at work, anything with a first and last name on it must not be out in the open and must be shredded. Does that not apply here? I know it's not HIPPA, but if I wanted everyone in my complex to have access to my whole name I would paint it on my apartment.

[rockinmommy]

As far as the length of time, it will go by whatever your lease states. For example, my lease states that rent is due and payable, in full on the first. If I don't have it by the close of business on the 3rd, that's when late fees start. But rent is late on the 2nd. I just don't start charging late fees until the 4th. I can post a pay or quit on the 2nd.

It's all based on the wording of your lease, and then you can cross-check that against your state's landlord/tenant property code to be sure that the wording in the lease isn't in conflict with the law.

As far as posting it with your name showing... yeah, I've never heard of that being a problem. Typically, if you don't abide by the notice and it gets filed for an eviction hearing you'll be served by the sherrif or constable. If they don't find you at home they'll post it right on your front door, out in the open, for the whole world to see with your name showing and everything. So I doubt it's illegal.

[ScottGem]

First, while some states do mandate a grace period, not all do. There is a sticky at the top of this form that links to state landlord/tenant laws, so you can check if WA has such a mandate. If it doesn't then its whatever is written in the lease.

Rent is generally due on the date listed in the lease. Therefore, if its not received by close of business on that day, its late. The grace period generally refers to when late charges accrue. Therefore, if you are chronically late, a landlord might decide they have had enough and file on the first day the payment is late. They might not have to wait until late charges accrue.

And HIPAA has no bearing whatsoever on this. You gave up your rights by being late. So its perfectly legal for them to put a notice on your door with your name and the amount due on it. You want to avoid that, pay on time!

[JudyKayTee]

First question: How long of a grace period after rent day do you get before you get a 3 day pay or vacate?

Second question: Is it legal for them to tape it on my door without an envelope? I mean my first and last name are on there.

BTW, I live in Washington State.

I'll go with everybody else on the grace period -

As far as the taping, sure, it's legal service. I do it all the time (all sorts of documents and papers) and I just checked Washington law - it's OK. I know you shred documents in your office but that's because of HIPAA which (I am stating the obvious which we both know) does not apply here.

[ChihuahuaMomma]

Thanks for the info guys. This is the first time that my rent has been late, and this is the first time that this has been an issue. And I will have my paycheck tomorrow, which is two days after that notice. I was just mad about the way it was presented to the whole neighborhood to see my struggles.

[progunr]

While legal, I do question the open disclosure issue.

As a collector, I have to put any written notice in a plain envelope, it may not even contain the name of the business I am representing, on the envelope.

It must be marked "personal & confidential" and can only contain the persons First and Last Name. I can't write "urgent notice" or "date sensitive, immediate response required".

The letter or notice inside the envelope must contain the following statement "the purpose of this communication is to collect a debt and any information obtained will be used for that purpose".

I guess, because it is a public, legal matter, there is no requirement for privacy, but again, I disagree with it.

[JudyKayTee]

While legal, I do question the open disclosure issue.

As a collector, I have to put any written notice in a plain envelope, it may not even contain the name of the business I am representing, on the envelope.

It must be marked "personal & confidential" and can only contain the persons First and Last Name. I can't write "urgent notice" or "date sensitive, immediate response required".

The letter or notice inside the envelope must contain the following statement "the purpose of this communication is to collect a debt and any information obtained will be used for that purpose".

I guess, because it is a public, legal matter, there is no requirement for privacy, but again, I disagree with it.

And I also question it - but the law in NYS is it doesn't have to be handled in the fashion you have described. I have nailed and mailed or posted in an envelope and the Defendant's argument is that it was NOT in an envelope and, thus, invalid, not realizing there is no such requirement and I know SOMEBODY opened it in order to make the argument.

When I do the follow-up mail, you are correct - personal and confidential, their name and a return address which does not indicate it's from a law firm. No other info.

[mpeek99]

I am not sure what the laws are in Washington, but I had a similar experience with a bad landlord so to get back at them I sub let my apartment to semeone else and they had to go through evicting a new person which took another 4-6 months as payback.

[ChihuahuaMomma]

This post is already taken care of. I have no desire to "pay back" my landlord.

[michealb]

Your lucky your not my tenant if you don't want people to know your business. I always pay the extra money to have the sheriff put the notice on the door or if your home the sheriff hands you the paper and tells you that you need to pay your rent. Of course all my tenants know this is how I handle my late rents so they aren't surprised by it.

[ChihuahuaMomma]

My business is just that. MY business. The Sheriff doesn't put the notice there, the landlord does. The sheriff doesn't come unless I haven't paid for a really long time, not if I'm three days late on rent.

The Sheriff must hate that you waste his time like that. You have him hand out late rent notices? Seriously? The sheriff should only be involved in the removal of the individual if necessary.

I wouldn't want you to be my Landlord.

*PS, If I wanted my neighbors to know my full name and phone number, I'd give it to them myself. My business is none of theirs.

[zawatska]

I agree with C.Momma. I don't live in a complex, but even so I would never want my full name posted anywhere!

[asking]

I guess I'm being obtuse, but I don't see why knowing someone's full name is such a big deal--unless it's attached to some specific information you don't want spread around (like medical records or personal information). So your nosy neighbor knows your name; what can happen that can't happen when you go to the store and buy a bag of groceries with a credit card, which has your full name on it? I don't get it.

[ChihuahuaMomma]

Well my credit card doesn't also have my address and phone number on it. Also a reason I only use checks to pay bills.

If you are really curious as to my anger in my person information being posted, please email me. I will not post my whole life online.

[ScottGem]

The Sheriff must hate that you waste his time like that. You have him hand out late rent notices? Seriously? The sheriff should only be involved in the removal of the individual if necessary.

*PS, If I wanted my neighbors to know my full name and phone number, I'd give it to them myself. My business is none of theirs.

First, the sheriff gets paid to do this. In most cases a sheriff is an appointed position to handle things like this. They are not always law enforcement officers.

Second, there is one piece missing here. You were late in your rent. When you failed to make your rental payment on time you incurred consequences for that. You now have an even greater incentive to pay ypour rent on time.

[michealb]

If you have an address finding your name isn't that difficult. If you're the owner I can find out how much you paid for it, who owns the house with you, when you bought it and what your property taxes are. All over the internet.

Having the sheriff deliver late notices is part of what they do around here. The late notices are filed with them and they charge $20 extra when filing, if you want the one of the hundreds of sheriff's in the county to deliver it. I could do it myself or I could even mail it to them but if the sheriff delivers it. The tenant can't use the excuse that they didn't get the late notice. Which believe it or not some judges actually feel is valid excuse for not paying rent. Nice landlords tend to get taken advantage of and go out of business.