Partial Payments
Accepting partial payments is not a good business practice. But you can make exceptions. If you do, you want your tenant to know you're doing it reluctantly and only once.
When you write a receipt for a partial payment, write down the balance due “On Account.” Never, never say on that first receipt that the money applies to a particular rental period. You will write down the rental period covered by the payment on the second receipt after you get the rest of your money. This is important because some tenants have gone into court claiming that they “lost” the second receipt and the judges have ruled in their favor, delaying the eviction process.
Likewise, if your tenant owes more than one month's rent, when you do receive some money, it should be applied to the oldest debt, never to the current month. If you give your tenant a receipt for the current month while back rent is owed, you are establishing a receipt record that has gaps in it. Then if you go to court to evict your tenant, he can say the receipts for the missing months were lost or misplaced. The judge might decide to accept the tenant's word and not rule for an eviction. Don't take a chance on the outcome.
Accepting a partial payment cancels the current Pay Rent or Quit notice. So when you get the money, immediately hand your tenant another notice to Pay Rent or Quit. That way you won't get hung up by the exacting timetable that delays the eviction process. Those delays could cause you to lose even more rent if you do end up having to terminate the tenant.
In general you are taking a chance if you accept partial payments. But if your tenant's situation seems to be temporary and he has a good record of paying on time, you might want to give your tenant another week. Just be sure to get a written repayment schedule — a one-week extension in most cases — and have it signed by both of you.
