when can i give a 3 day notice when my renters dont pay rent?

Unless you have a written lease or rental agreement with the tenants, then the 3-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit can be hand-served on the tenants by a registered process server the day after the rent became due. Many leases provide for a late charge, and the late charge does not apply until a couple of days later, often the fifth day. If you have such a lease, then you might want to wait until then, so that you can use the late charge to offset the fee of the process server. Don't wait any longer than that. If you let the tenants get a month behind, it is unlikely that they will ever catch up. Whatever prevented them from paying the rent one month is not going to make them able to pay for two months the next month. Another technique some of my clients use is to call the tenant on the day after the rent is due, if it has not been received, and complain and tell the tenant it is due on the day it says in the lease, usually the first day of the month, even if there is a late charge that doesn't happen for a couple of more days. The tenants get tired of these embarassing and demeaning calls and start mailing their checks a couple of days early so that they arrive on time. If you appreciate this free advice, please remember to refer me to any friends or acquaintances who need a lawyer. Referrals are still our best source of new business. Do you have a revocable living trust to protect your heirs against probate? Probate takes forever, is expensive, and is annoying. Do your family a favor. Set up a trust, and put all your property, especially any real property, into the trust. Since it is revocable, you can change it, add to it, take property out of it, or even cancel it completely, at any time. We set up such trusts, provide a pour-over will as a back-up for any property that does not make it into the trust, provide you with blank durable powers of attorney for health care and financial decisions, in case you become incapable of making such decisions while still alive, and convey one piece of real property to the trust, usually the family home, for $1500.00. If you would like to hire me to do this, let me know, and I'll send you a list of the information I need. Dana Sack