Catching up with calendar months

Question

A tenant began his rental term on the 20th of the month. Our system gives two options:

1. For the monthly period to begin on the day he started renting (the 20th) and end exactly a month later (on the 19th).

2. For the payment to be delayed until the end of the first complete month, and from then on the monthly period is calendrical.

In Case 2 - I need a word for what describes this option. Currently the term used is Completion to Calendar Month, but this doesn't sound good; it was most likely a literal translation from the original language which didn't translate well.

What I would like to say is "catching up with the regular frequency" or "appending the payment to a full calendar month" - but as concisely as possible.

Answer 1

I would call the first option "Fiscal Month" and the second option "Calendar Month".

Just as "fiscal year" means "any 12-month period that ends on the last day of any month except December. ", I think it is reasonable for "fiscal month" to mean any month-long time interval.

For example: "The fiscal year is now structured such that the first fiscal month is set to begin on December 19 and end on January 18"

Answer 2

You could say that the payments are aligned to calendar months, but normally you would need to say something like

payments are made monthly on the same day of each month, which may be the day of the month on which the tenancy started or the first day of the month.

Completion to calendar month might (in English) indicate the payment for the part-month which needs to be paid for separately in order that future payments are aligned to calendar months. Thus for a tenant starting on 20th, you would have a completion payment to "complete" the partial month.

However, as completion usually means something else in contract law (the final signing and seal) it's not a good phrase to use here.

Tenancies in England always run in exact months from the date they start, so a payment made on the first day of the month is paying for the previous part-month in arrears and the next part-month in advance. Consequently in England we don't have your concept of completion and this makes a direct translation difficult.

When I took out my mortgage, the mortgage company wanted payments made in advance on the first day of the month, so the first payment included the previous two weeks as well¹. This was actually called arrears:

Money that is owed and should have been paid earlier

[ODO]

...even though it was never actually treated as late. Your "completion" payment to align future payments to calendar months, if it's made late, is technically a payment in arrears.

If the tenant simply pays the first couple of weeks in advance, and then makes monthly payments after that, then a payment to align to calendar months describes it fairly succinctly.

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¹ And the final payment was less as it only went to the anniversary date, not the full calendar month.

Answer 3

Prorated is the term.

Prorating rent by the day is the most practical when a tenant moves in or out in the middle of the month, or is subletting to someone else.

For example, a tenant wants to move-in on July 17, for a lease duration of approx. 6.5 months. The landlord would charge a prorated amount from July 17th to July 31 (15 days), and then charge the full monthly rent amount on the first of every month thereafter.

https://www.landlordology.com/calculate-prorated-rent/