Apartment Late Fee Rules by State

The trigger date comes before the formula

Do not start by multiplying rent by a percentage. First identify the contractual due date, any statutory waiting period or grace rule, the date the required amount was actually paid and whether a partial balance remained unpaid. Only then compare the posted fee with the applicable state formula.

The 21 verified frameworks are materially different

• California: No fixed statewide residential percentage cap under Civil Code § 1671; covered lease late fees are tested as liquidated damages under §1671(d), including whether actual late-payment damage would be impracticable or extremely difficult to fix.
• Colorado: Seven-calendar-day trigger, rental-agreement disclosure and a ceiling equal to the greater of $50 or 5% of the past-due rent payment.
• Connecticut: Nine-day grace period (four days for a one-week tenancy), a lower-of ceiling and a 2026 five-day extension when the landlord online payment system prevents timely payment.
• Delaware: Rental-agreement late-charge provision, a 5% of monthly rent cap and a five-day protected period after the agreed payment time, with a separate three-day extension if the required county payment place is not maintained.
• Hawaii: Where the rental agreement provides for a late charge, HRS §521-21(f) caps it at 8% of the amount of rent due; the 2017 amendment applies to agreements entered into or renewed on or after November 1, 2017.
• Iowa: Two-tier daily and monthly ceilings: rent of $700 or less uses $12/day and $60/month; rent above $700 uses $20/day and $100/month.
• Maine: 15-day threshold, written notice and a 4% maximum under the verified state source.
• Massachusetts: Lease-based interest or penalties for failure to pay rent cannot be imposed until 30 days after the rent became due under the verified statewide source.
• Maryland: 5% of unpaid rent due for the ordinary non-weekly rule, with separate weekly-rent limits.
• Minnesota: Written agreement required; ordinary ceiling is 8% of overdue rent, with a tenant-paid-portion rule for covered housing assistance.
• Nevada: Rental-agreement term, a three-calendar-day timing rule for tenancies longer than week-to-week and a maximum of 5% of periodic rent, with no increase of the maximum from a previously imposed late fee.
• New Jersey: Eligibility-based five-business-day grace period when covered rent is due on the first of the month; Saturdays, Sundays and State/federal holidays do not count, and the statute does not itself provide one universal statewide percentage cap.
• New Mexico: Rental-agreement authorization and a maximum of 5% of rent under the current rule; deposits, additional fees and utilities are excluded from the calculation base.
• New York: Five-day trigger and the lower of $50 or 5% of monthly rent for the ordinary residential rule.
• North Carolina: Five-calendar-day trigger; monthly rent uses the greater of $15 or 5%, weekly rent uses the greater of $4 or 5%, and only one ordinary late fee may be imposed per late payment.
• Oregon: Written terms plus one of three statutory calculation structures after the timing condition is met.
• Tennessee: Coverage-dependent URLTA rule: five-day grace period with the due date counted as day one, Sunday/legal-holiday protection and a maximum of 10% of rent past due.
• Texas: Written lease, two full unpaid days and a statutory reasonableness framework.
• Utah: Maximum late fee is the greater of 10% of the rent agreed to in the rental agreement or $75; separate lease/notice restrictions apply to other fees, fines, assessments, interest and costs.
• Virginia: Written agreement and a ceiling based on the lesser of 10% of periodic rent or 10% of the remaining balance due.
• Washington: No rent late fee when rent is paid within five days after the due date under the verified statewide timing rule.

Hawaii adds an agreement-date checkpoint to the 8% ceiling

HRS §521-21(f) says that where the rental agreement provides for a late charge for rent not paid when due, the late charge may not exceed 8% of the amount of rent due. Act 179 made the amendment effective November 1, 2017 and applies it to rental agreements entered into or renewed on or after that date. For a very old never-renewed agreement, verify the agreement history before applying the cap automatically. The subsection sets the amount ceiling but does not itself create one universal statewide grace period.

Tennessee requires a county-coverage check before the formula

Tennessee §66-28-201(d) sits inside URLTA, and Tennessee URLTA coverage is county-specific. Confirm that the rental property is in a covered county and within the Act’s scope before applying the late-fee rule. Where it applies, the due date is counted as day one of a five-day grace period, the percentage ceiling is 10% of rent past due, and a Sunday/legal-holiday fifth day can move the no-fee payment opportunity to the next business day.

Nevada uses periodic rent as the ceiling base

NRS 118A.210 caps the covered late fee at 5% of periodic rent and requires the fee to be set forth in the rental agreement. For a tenancy longer than week-to-week, no late fee may be charged or imposed until at least three calendar days after rent is due. The statute also says the maximum late fee may not be increased based on a previously imposed late fee, so a ledger should not compound a new maximum from rent plus an earlier late fee.

Utah uses a greater-of maximum ceiling

Utah Code §57-22-4(5) says an owner may not charge a renter a late fee above the greater of 10% of the rent agreed to in the rental agreement or $75. Calculate both amounts first. The larger result is the maximum ceiling, not an additive $75 fee and not a required minimum charge. The subsection does not itself create one universal statewide grace period, so timing should come from the rental agreement and other applicable rules.

Connecticut uses a lower-of cap after the grace-period test

Connecticut §47a-15a requires the applicable grace period to expire before a valid written late charge may be assessed. The ceiling is then the lesser of $5 per day up to $50, or 5% of the delinquent rent payment. For a rental agreement paid in whole or in part by a governmental or charitable entity, the percentage branch uses the tenant’s share. The statute also limits the landlord to one late charge on that delinquent rent payment.

Connecticut added an online-payment-system extension for 2026

Effective January 1, 2026, Connecticut extends the ordinary nine-day or four-day grace period by five additional days when the landlord’s online rental payment system prevents payment when due. The extension applies only to the affected week or month. Screenshots, error messages and support timestamps can therefore materially change the late-fee timing analysis.

Delaware adds a payment-location checkpoint

Delaware § 5501(d) uses a 5%-of-monthly-rent ceiling and says the late charge cannot be imposed within five days of the agreed payment time. It also requires the landlord to maintain an office or other permanent place for receiving payments in the county where the rental unit is located. If that is not maintained, the agreed payment time is extended three days beyond the due date, which can shift the start of the five-day late-charge analysis.

Iowa uses daily limits plus a monthly cap

Iowa Code § 562A.9(4) creates two rent tiers. Monthly rent of $700 or less is capped at $12 per day and $60 total per month. Monthly rent greater than $700 is capped at $20 per day and $100 total per month. A daily amount can therefore comply on a single day but still exceed the monthly ceiling after enough days. The subsection limits the amount in the rental agreement and does not itself create one universal statewide grace period.

New Mexico changed from 10% to 5% in 2025

New Mexico SB 267 amended § 47-8-15(D), effective June 20, 2025. Current late fees may not exceed 5% of rent for each rental period in default, and the calculation must exclude deposits, additional fees and utilities. The owner must also provide notice of the late fee no later than the last day of the next rental period immediately following the period in which the default occurred. Older 10% summaries are no longer current for 2026 charges.

Colorado combines a trigger, disclosure rule and greater-of ceiling

Colorado C.R.S. § 38-12-105 requires the rent payment to be late by at least seven calendar days and requires the late fee to be disclosed in the rental agreement. The amount ceiling is the greater of $50 or 5% of the past-due rent payment. For calculator use, compute the two ceiling candidates and enter the larger dollar amount as the maximum cap rather than treating $50 as a required minimum fee.

Massachusetts is a timing checkpoint, not a percentage cap

Massachusetts G.L. c.186 § 15B(1)(c) says a lease or rental agreement may not impose interest or a penalty for failure to pay rent until 30 days after the rent became due. Use the actual contractual due date and ledger posting date to test that threshold. The subsection does not itself provide one universal statewide percentage or dollar formula for every residential late charge.

North Carolina uses greater-of formulas and limits repeat fees

For monthly rent, North Carolina G.S. 42-46 allows a late fee no greater than $15 or 5% of monthly rent, whichever is greater. Weekly rent uses $4 or 5% of weekly rent, whichever is greater. The statute also permits only one ordinary late fee for each late rental payment and prevents rolling that fee into a later payment in a way that causes a new default.

Minnesota adds a housing-assistance calculation rule

For a landlord with a qualifying housing assistance payments contract, Minnesota § 504B.177 requires the late fee to be calculated only on the portion of rent payable by the tenant. Keep the tenant-share breakdown with the ledger instead of applying eight percent to the full tenant-plus-government rent amount.

Maryland changed the percentage base to unpaid rent

Effective October 1, 2025, Maryland Chapter 580 amended § 8-208 so the five-percent ceiling is calculated from unpaid rent due for the delinquent rental period. That makes partial-payment records important: do not automatically apply five percent to the original full monthly rent when part of the rent has already been paid.

Maine combines timing, amount and notice in one rule

14 M.R.S. § 6028 defines the late-payment threshold, sets a four-percent maximum and separately requires written notice at the time the rental agreement is entered into. Keep the original lease/disclosure as well as the payment date because all three layers matter.

Oregon uses three calculation structures instead of one statewide percentage

ORS 90.260 permits a reasonable flat amount charged once per rental period, a reasonable daily amount beginning on the fifth day subject to the statute’s daily limit, or five percent of periodic rent for each succeeding five-day period or portion while the rent remains delinquent through that rental period. Use the exact structure written into the rental agreement rather than mixing the three approaches.

Washington is a timing rule, not a percentage-cap rule

RCW 59.18.170 provides a five-day protection and a rule for when late fees may run if the rent becomes more than five days past due. The section does not supply one general statewide percentage cap for ordinary residential late fees, so do not invent one from the timing provision.

Keep payment-processing, utility and eviction-related charges separate

A card-processing fee, returned-payment charge, landlord-billed utility late charge or eviction-related administrative fee can appear near a rent late fee on the ledger but follow a different rule. Do not combine all payment-related lines into one late-fee calculation.

Documents to compare

• Written lease section stating the rent due date and late-fee terms.
• Resident ledger showing the posting date and exact fee label.
• Payment confirmation, bank record or portal receipt.
• Any partial-payment history and remaining balance.
• Returned-payment notice if the original transaction failed.
• Payment-method disclosure if a card or electronic-processing fee is disputed.
• For Colorado, the past-due rent amount, rental-agreement late-fee disclosure, any subsidy-provider share and the written late-fee notice.
• For Connecticut, the tenancy frequency, statutory grace period, tenant-share amount when assisted rent applies, both cap calculations and screenshots/support records for any landlord online-payment-system failure.
• For Delaware, the agreed payment time, monthly rent, late-charge clause, payment-location instructions and whether a qualifying county payment place was maintained.
• For Hawaii, the agreement or renewal date, rental-agreement late-charge clause, amount of rent due, fee calculation and separate non-rent charge lines.
• For Iowa, the monthly rent amount, exact daily late-fee term, ledger posting dates and total late fees charged during the month.
• For Maine, the written late-payment penalty notice provided at rental-agreement entry.
• For Massachusetts, the contractual due date and the date any interest or penalty was first imposed.
• For Maryland, the unpaid-rent balance used as the percentage base and whether the lease is paid weekly.
• For Minnesota, the written trigger and tenant-paid rent portion when housing assistance applies.
• For Nevada, the tenancy frequency, periodic rent, due date, rental-agreement late-fee clause, posting date and any evidence that a prior late fee was included in the base for a later charge.
• For New Mexico, the rental-agreement clause, rent-only calculation base, excluded utilities/fees and late-fee notice date.
• For North Carolina, whether rent is monthly or weekly and whether the same late payment generated more than one late fee.
• For Oregon periodic tenancies, any written notice changing the late-fee type or amount.
• For Tennessee, the property county, URLTA coverage evidence, due date, rent-past-due balance, grace-period calendar and any Sunday/legal-holiday extension.
• For Utah, the agreed rent amount, 10% calculation, $75 comparison amount, exact late-fee term and any 15-day month-to-month notice for a newly added separate charge.
• For Washington, any written due-date adjustment request if the governmental-assistance timing rule is relevant.

Why only 21 states appear here

This page includes only states where RentBillCheck already has a dedicated, source-verified late-fee rule that materially changes the calculation workflow. Some frameworks, such as Tennessee URLTA, require an additional coverage check before the rule can be applied. For other states, use the Late Fee Calculator with the lease terms and open the broader state source layer rather than assuming one national rule.