My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Georgia
I had a situation where my payroll bank made a mistake on my automatic deposit at the beginning of October. The payroll did not go in when it should have and this caused my rent payment to be rejected by my bank because there weren't enough funds to cover.
As soon as I found out that this was going to happen, I immediately contacted my property management company to make them aware of what was happening. Because my bank rejected the payment, the rent did not get paid on the 1st as it is supposed to. When this happens, an additional charge of $100 is applied to the account on the 2nd of the month and then an additional $100 for every day proceeding that...
Long story shorter...The property management company refunded some of the fees but still left a fee balance of $105 on my account - after I got the original rental payment re-issued. I asked them if there was any way to clear up the remaining amount since this was an issue that was beyond my control - I had even supplied them with a letter from the bank stating my innocence.
I was told that I should contact the payroll bank and have them refund the remaining $105 charge to me and that they would not remove the remaining $105 from the account. Since I was dealing with a bank, I knew that this would not be an overnight success story and it would take a few days to get all of this cleared up.
after talking with the payroll bank, they asked if they could contact my property management company, directly, and see if they could resolve this issue without having to pay. I guess they thought that a person-to-person conversation would have a different outcome. It didn't and the bank has finally agreed to refund me the $105 for the charges. Unfortunately, I still haven't received that money (but have been told it was being issued today) and I had o pay rent again today...so I included the additional $105 with my normal rent.
Here is why I am upset....apparently I was being charged an additional $10 per day for the $105 late fee that was in question and being resolved. After paying the rent AND the $105 late fee, i still have a balance of $190 on my account.....
Is this legal for them to charge late fee for a late fee???? Legal, or not, it is not ethical IMO since it was proven that I wasn't at fault to begin with.
Honestly, I don't have the additional $190 to pay them today and if, they continue with their actions, they will add an additional $100 tomorrow and keep accruing fees until I can pay them again - which is next week....
**Update** - just after typing all of that in, I received an email from the property management company stating that they would waive the fees this time...what a relief.
I hope that I never have to go through this again, but i would still like to know if it is legal to charge late fees for a late fee.....

