How does Alcove assist if a tenant fails to pay rent on time and becomes delinquent?
Alcove maintains a 99.4% rent collection rate and follows a structured collection process to help protect your rental income when payment issues arise.
While rent delinquencies are uncommon, they can still occur. That's why Alcove has an established in-house rent collection process, working directly with the tenant to recover their rent. Throughout the collection process, landlords have full visibility into each tenant's payment status, payment attempts, notices, and collection activity through the Tenant Payments page. For more information on payment statuses, retries, and how to interpret the Tenant Payments page, please see Tenant Payments Page Guide.
If a tenant ultimately remains delinquent after Alcove's collection efforts, landlords may become eligible to begin the summary ejectment (eviction) process. For guidance on repeat delinquencies, eviction considerations, and available options, please see What Happens if a Tenant is Consistently Delinquent?
Rent collection process:
- Rent is collected 15 days before the 1st of each month (for example, April rent is collected beginning March 15
- Between the 15th and the 5th of the month, Alcove's Tenant Operations team follows a structured 9-step collection process, including payment retries, reminders, emails, text messages, phone calls, guarantor notifications (when applicable), formal Notices to Pay Rent or Quit, and additional collection efforts.
- For a detailed breakdown, please visit Alcove's Rent Collection Process
Legal Filing Process:
If the above rent collection efforts are unsuccessful, Alcove provides landlords with the documentation needed to begin the summary ejectment process, including:
- Tenant ledger
- Notices to Quit and Vacate
- Countersigned lease agreement
- Information on filing the Complaint in Summary Ejectment, Magistrate Summons, and Service Members Civil Relief Act documentation
- Recommendations for local law firms that can assist out-of-state landlords
For complete information on eviction procedures and required documentation, please see Managing and Executing Evictions for Delinquent Tenants.
Once the paperwork has been filed:
If you are filing without legal representation:
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Await confirmation of your court date. If filing in person, the clerk will generally provide your court date at the time of filing. Online filings typically receive a court date within 1–2 business days by email.
- Serve the tenant through the appropriate legal channels and notify them of the scheduled court date using the contact information available in your Tenants page in your Alcove manager portal
While the legal process is pending:
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Alcove will continue attempting to collect payment through phone calls, text messages, and email.
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If the tenant informs us they have vacated, Alcove can arrange a turnover service to verify vacancy. If the tenant has vacated before the hearing, you may choose to dismiss the court case.
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If the tenant remains in possession of the room, you should proceed with the court hearing to regain possession of the bedroom. (This is rare and occurs in fewer than 0.2% of Alcove tenancies.)
After tenant vacates:
Once the bedroom has been confirmed vacant, Alcove will begin re-marketing and re-leasing the room at no additional cost. We handle inquiries, tours, applicant screening, lease generation, move-in coordination, and access code management. New applications can be viewed in your Tenants page under "Applicants" in the order they are received.
Please note that this article provides a general overview of Alcove's rent collection and delinquency support process. Our procedures may be updated periodically.
*Based on internal Alcove data from the 2021 May - 2023 May