Payments
The Preventable Side of Delinquency
Did you know 50% of residents pay late at least once a year? The reasons aren't always financial.... learn more about the preventable side of delinquency.
Did you know 50% of residents pay late at least once a year? The reasons aren't always financial.... learn more about the preventable side of delinquency.
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Did you know 50% of residents pay late at least once a year? The reasons aren't always financial.... learn more about the preventable side of delinquency.
Did you know 50% of residents pay late at least once a year? The reasons aren't always financial.... learn more about the preventable side of delinquency.
Delinquency is a problem for every portfolio. It disrupts cash flow, pulls time away from on-site teams, and creates unnecessary friction with residents. The assumption is that late rent is a budget problem. Residents can’t afford it, so they pay late. But what if most of it isn’t about money at all?
Domuso’s most recent report, The Modern Resident, found that 50% of residents pay late at least once a year, and the reasons aren’t always financial. The data points to a mix of causes from everyday distractions to platform issues to lack of incentives.
These aren’t edge cases. They show that financial strain isn’t always the main cause of late payments. That distinction matters because when drivers of delinquency are operational, the solutions can be too.
Some delinquency may be unavoidable. But far more of it is preventable than most teams assume.
There are many factors that lead to preventable delinquency, but two in particular stood out.
Rent is a monthly task competing with daily life. Most residents aren’t sitting down on the 1st with a checklist. They’re moving through routine, disruptions, and competing priorities.
In Domuso’s survey, one in three late-paying residents simply forgot. That’s a strong signal that timely, well-placed reminders through multiple channels can meaningfully reduce missed payments.
Even motivated residents procrastinate when paying takes effort: too many steps, unclear balance, login resets, limited payment options, slow mobile UX, or payment errors with no fast recovery path. Small barriers can create big drop-offs.
In the same survey, 13% of residents cited issues with the payment platform as a reason for paying late. Creating a streamlined experience can go a long way.
AutoPay is one of the most effective ways to address both forgetfulness and friction at the same time. It turns rent from a monthly decision into a background process.
The biggest operational challenge is adoption. The best-performing programs treat AutoPay as a core part of the rent experience: easy to enroll, explained clearly, and reinforced through reminders and incentives.
Incentives, like resident rewards, work well to drive desired behaviors. The report found that 67% of residents say they’d pay rent a few days early if there was something in it for them. The incentive doesn’t need to be expensive. It needs to be consistent, visible, and easy to understand.
Rent is often a resident’s largest monthly expense. Reporting on-time payments to credit bureaus gives residents a meaningful reason to prioritize timely payments while supporting long-term financial goals.
A resident’s payment pattern reveals habits, highlights friction points, and uncovers what’s working. Use your payment platform to analyze resident behavior and review performance of properties across the portfolio.
Domuso’s report, The Modern Resident, goes deeper into these patterns—why people pay late, which operational changes shift behavior, and how operators are reducing delinquency by 30% in just three months.
Check out the full report to learn more: Download The Modern Resident Report
