Partial Payments: The law does not force you to accept partial payments from a resident, but you can if you want to. It’s important to apply partial payments to the oldest rent first, carrying the balance forward. Always give receipts indicating how the partial payment is to be credited. In addition, the acceptance of a partial payment does not give the resident a fully paid status or cleared account based on the amount of days of the month represented by the partial payment. Remember that the entire month’s rent was due back on the first, and the balance, after credit, was and is still due from the first of the month. At the time of receipt of the partial payment, the resident should be reminded of this and that a three day notice to pay rent or quit may be served immediately for the balance overdue.
Rental Due Date: The lease will usually provide that the rent is due in advance on the first (although it is legal to provide that the due date be any other day of the month that you wish). Where the rental date falls on a weekend or holiday, the resident must be given the next business day in which to pay the rent. A three day notice to pay rent or quit cannot legally be served until at least one day after the rent is due – keeping in mind that weekends and holidays might further extend the due date. Care should be taken not to serve a three day notice to pay rent or quit rematurely. It should be dated and served only after the actual rental due date has passed.
Money Orders, Personal Checks: Where you have accepted personal checks over a long period of time, the court may conclude that there has been created an implied agreement that personal checks are acceptable. In this instance where you have accepted personal checks over a long period of time and, absent a clause in the rental agreement to the contrary, you may not, without prior notice, insist on cash or a money order when a three day notice to pay rent or quit is served on the resident who has paid by personal checks in the past. No statute or case in the State of California authorizes the policy that, without a lease clause to this effect, cash or money order must be tendered against a three day notice to pay rent or quit. If this is your policy, it is necessary to spell it out in the lease or in the house rules and regulations.