H
hsjeck
Guest
We have been late paying rent on a commercial lease in Florida, have been behind for over a year, are presently a number of months behind but have received money to get current. Since we were behind for so long we never really kept track of the late fees and interest but now that we are ready to get current, we have gone back and examined all of those charges.
The lease states "If.....any rental amounts or other amounts due are not paid afer the 10th day of each month, a late charge of five (5%) percent per month will be added to the unpaid balance." We interpret "other amounts" to be the standard charge for electricity, our portion of the real estate taxes and sales tax.
The problem is this: The landlord is charging 5% of the total unpaid balance each month. This unpaid balance includes the 5% late charges and interest from prior months. We are, therefore, paying late fees and interest on our late fees and interest. Over the course of a year this has added up to a substantial amount of money.
We think we should only be paying the late fees and interest on the unpaid rent and other charges as we define them above. Also, when we did our calculation, we applied any payments that were made to the back rent and other charges, thus reducing the balance of what we were using as the basis for the late charges and interest. In other words, we think any payments should be applied to the principal (rent and other charges) first, then applied to late fees and interest.
Is this correct? Any advice on this would be much appreciated.
The lease states "If.....any rental amounts or other amounts due are not paid afer the 10th day of each month, a late charge of five (5%) percent per month will be added to the unpaid balance." We interpret "other amounts" to be the standard charge for electricity, our portion of the real estate taxes and sales tax.
The problem is this: The landlord is charging 5% of the total unpaid balance each month. This unpaid balance includes the 5% late charges and interest from prior months. We are, therefore, paying late fees and interest on our late fees and interest. Over the course of a year this has added up to a substantial amount of money.
We think we should only be paying the late fees and interest on the unpaid rent and other charges as we define them above. Also, when we did our calculation, we applied any payments that were made to the back rent and other charges, thus reducing the balance of what we were using as the basis for the late charges and interest. In other words, we think any payments should be applied to the principal (rent and other charges) first, then applied to late fees and interest.
Is this correct? Any advice on this would be much appreciated.