Paying your past due rent and negotiating a way to stay

No one likes to be late on any kind of debt payments, especially your rent. So what do you do when you are late on rent and you don’t want to get evicted?
Do you get money from family and friends or do you go to the bank and get a loan?

1. Paying your past due rent

While requesting to borrow money from family and friends may be a little tedious and not ideal, it would be better than getting money from the bank. If you know your finances are going to change soon, then getting money from family is okay, that way you can repay them.

2. Negotiating with landlord to stay

Now that you have caught up on your rent, and you’ve looked at your budget and your financial prospects look better, and you know things will improve in a few months; you can start talking to your landlord about staying and reducing rent payments.

If your landlord is an individual and not a bureaucratic company, then you might have a good chance at convincing him/her to agree to your terms. If not, it might be difficult to negotiate to stay in your home and to have the rent reduced; even if you have a good payment history.

However, should your landlord agree to the reduced amount for a while, then you might want to get an agreement in writing.
What must be in your agreement?
– The amount that the rent is reduced to;
– The duration of the reduced payments;
– The default and consequences of the agreement;
– How you will be paying the rent that is in arrears; whether it is by using your deposit or you paying it in full.
– Whether or not you must pay an extra security deposit.