When to send quarterly rent invoice?

[TrueIvory]

Hi, Can anyone advise on when to you send a quarterly rent invoice, if next quarter starts on 25 March? And how long do you give them to pay? As in, when should payment be due. Thank you.

 

[fisicx]

What does it say in the lease?

 

[Mark T Jones]

Hopefully you have some kind of automated payment set up

In any case, a minimum of 2 weeks with no leeway on payment date

 

[eteb3]

Usually there is no need to demand the rent (bc tenant gives a covenant to pay ), so you don’t have to invoice at all.

Maybe that would give the accountants a headache, but I wouldn’t risk varying the lease terms by conduct by giving any kind of formality to it. Arguably a formal demand consistently given could make the rent non-payable if one day there is no demand.

Would be interested if any accountants could comment on how this would be dealt with without vouchers. Or if market practice is in fact to invoice

 

[Scalloway]

When I ran the accounts for a property company as far as I recall the smaller properties were on standing orders. Larger properties were generally standard rated for VAT so VAT invoices were issued.

 

[TrueIvory]

It says on lease pay on quarter days. But I don't know when I should be requesting payment. Previous commercial tenants had to be chased for payment, so I wanted to pre-empt the need to do that.

 

[Scalloway]

The only sure way to get paid on the correct date is to set up standing orders or direct debits.

 

[attendsneeze]

Usually there is no need to demand the rent (bc tenant gives a covenant to pay ), so you don’t have to invoice at all.

Maybe that would give the accountants a headache, but I wouldn’t risk varying the lease terms by conduct by giving any kind of formality to it. Arguably a formal demand consistently given could make the rent non-payable if one day there is no demand.

Would be interested if any accountants could comment on how this would be dealt with without vouchers. Or if market practice is in fact to invoice

Have you seen instances where a landlord’s informal approach to rent collection led to problems later?

 

[eteb3]

No, that’s my understanding of the law not experience of practice. Like any contract, a lease can be varied by conduct (although as a lease is by deed, that’s comparatively harder than in a simple contract).

More practically, in every area of business that I do have experience of, if you don’t hold people to their contracts, they will treat the contract as varied - even if it’s not enough to vary it in a strict legal sense. I’m not sure why OP is invoicing the tenant for something they’ve agreed to pay no matter what.

 

[LPB 123]

I’m not sure why OP is invoicing the tenant for something they’ve agreed to pay no matter what.

Our landlord for our warehouse sends us an invoice on the last day of every month, dated on the 1st of the next month. There is a standing order in place for the 1st, but they still send an invoice every month regardless.

 

[eteb3]

Is it a VAT invoice as Scalloway mentioned?

 

[LPB 123]

Is it a VAT invoice as Scalloway mentioned?

Yes it is a VAT invoice. Even if not registered, I think it makes sense to invoice regardless from an accounting perspective for the records of both parties, even if it was not technically required.

In regards to the OP, check the lease and what terms are on there. Hopefully the lease states when payments are due and maybe they can move to setting up a standing order

 

[Mark T Jones]

Yes it is a VAT invoice. Even if not registered, I think it makes sense to invoice regardless from an accounting perspective for the records of both parties, even if it was not technically required.

In regards to the OP, check the lease and what terms are on there. Hopefully the lease states when payments are due and maybe they can move to setting up a standing order

Sending invoices is a choice. Even if VAT registered an annual schedule should suffice.

However, we all agree that the critical issue here is collecting rent, which should be automated