Housing & Tenant · Rent Late Fees
Rent Late Fee Limits by State
The most a landlord can charge you for paying rent late, and the grace period you may be owed. For each state, with whether the fee has to be in your lease and the exact statute.
Read this first: three very different rules
A few states set a real ceiling. New York caps a late fee at $50 or 5% of the rent, whichever is less, and only after a 5-day grace period. Some set a safe harbor instead: Texas treats a fee of up to 12% of the rent (for small properties) as presumptively reasonable, which is a presumption a court can still look behind, not a hard maximum.
Many states, including several here, set no number at all. There the only rule is that the fee must be a reasonable estimate of what the late payment actually costs the landlord; a fee that behaves like a penalty can be challenged even without a statutory percentage. We do not invent a cap for those states: a reasonableness-only state says so plainly. A late fee almost everywhere is enforceable only if it is written into your lease.
Every state in one table
The cap, the grace period, and the statute in each row.
Type a state to jump straight to its full rent late fee guide.
Hard cap on the fee (16)
| State | Cap | Grace period | Statute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado | Greater of $50 or 5%, after 7 days | 7-day grace | Colo. Rev. Stat. §38‑12‑105 |
| Connecticut | Lesser of $5/day up to $50, or 5%, once only | 9-day grace | Conn. Gen. Stat. §47a‑15a |
| Delaware | 5% cap, 5 days grace, and the fee counts as rent | 5-day grace | Del. Code Ann. tit. 25, §5501 |
| Hawaii | 8% cap, no grace period | No grace period set | Haw. Rev. Stat. §521‑21(f) |
| Iowa | Dollar caps that step up at a $700 rent line | No grace period set | Iowa Code §562A.9 |
| Maine | 4% cap, 15 days grace, told at signing | 15-day grace | Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 14, §6028 |
| Maryland | 5% of the unpaid rent, banned as a lease clause | No grace period set | Md. Code Ann., Real Prop. §8‑208 |
| Minnesota | 8% cap, and only if you agreed in writing | No grace period set | Minn. Stat. §504B.177 |
| Nevada | 5% cap, 3 days grace, and no fee on a fee | 3-day grace | Nev. Rev. Stat. §118A.210 |
| New Mexico | 5% cap, and the landlord has a deadline too | No grace period set | N.M. Stat. Ann. §47‑8‑15(D) |
| New York | $50 or 5%, whichever is less | 5-day grace | N.Y. Real Property Law §238‑a(2) |
| North Carolina | Greater of $15 or 5%, after 5 days, once only | 5-day grace | N.C. Gen. Stat. §42‑46 |
| Oregon | 4 days grace, then one of three permitted formulas | 4-day grace | Or. Rev. Stat. §90.260 |
| TennesseeCited | 5 days grace, then 10%, but only in larger counties | 5-day grace | Tenn. Code Ann. §66‑28‑201(d) |
| Utah | Greater of 10% or $75, but you cannot sue over it | No grace period set | Utah Code Ann. §57‑22‑4(5) |
| Virginia | 10%, and the lesser of two measures | No grace period set | Va. Code Ann. §55.1‑1204(E) |
Safe-harbor percent (1)
| State | Cap | Grace period | Statute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 12% safe harbor | 2-day grace | Tex. Prop. Code §92.019 |
Reasonable fee only (33)
| State | Cap | Grace period | Statute |
|---|---|---|---|
| AlabamaCited | No cap and no grace period | No grace period set | Case law |
| AlaskaCited | No cap in landlord-tenant law | No grace period set | Case law |
| ArizonaCited | No cap for apartments, a mobile-home lot rule apart | No grace period set | Case law |
| ArkansasCited | No cap and no grace period | No grace period set | Case law |
| California | Must be reasonable | No grace period set | Case law |
| Florida | Must be reasonable | No grace period set | Case law |
| Georgia | Must be reasonable | No grace period set | Case law |
| Idaho | No numeric cap, but the fee must be reasonable | No grace period set | Case law |
| Illinois | Must be reasonable | No grace period set | Case law |
| Indiana | No cap, and no city may make one | No grace period set | Case law |
| Kansas | No cap and no grace period | No grace period set | Case law |
| KentuckyCited | No cap, and the Act only binds adopting cities | No grace period set | Case law |
| Louisiana | No cap, judged as a contract clause | No grace period set | Case law |
| Massachusetts | 30 days grace, the longest in the country, and no cap | 30-day grace | Case law |
| Michigan | No cap and no grace period | No grace period set | Case law |
| MississippiCited | No cap, and late fees are legally rent | No grace period set | Case law |
| Missouri | No cap, but you cannot be evicted over late fees | No grace period set | Case law |
| Montana | No cap and no grace period | No grace period set | Case law |
| Nebraska | No cap and no grace period | No grace period set | Case law |
| New Hampshire | No cap, and the $15 figure is not a late-fee cap | No grace period set | Case law |
| New JerseyCited | No general cap, but a 5 business-day grace for seniors and benefit recipients | 5-day grace | Case law |
| North Dakota | No cap and no grace period | No grace period set | Case law |
| Ohio | Must be reasonable | No grace period set | Case law |
| Oklahoma | No cap, the cleanest silence of any state | No grace period set | Case law |
| PennsylvaniaCited | Must be reasonable | No grace period set | Case law |
| Rhode Island | No late-fee cap, but a ban on convenience fees | No grace period set | Case law |
| South Carolina | No cap, and late charges are rent | No grace period set | Case law |
| South Dakota | No cap and no grace period | No grace period set | Case law |
| Vermont | No cap and no grace period | No grace period set | Case law |
| WashingtonCited | No statewide cap, but your city may have one | No grace period set | Case law |
| West Virginia | No cap, and the one lever is in the deposit statute | No grace period set | Case law |
| Wisconsin | No cap, but three real procedural rules | No grace period set | Case law |
| Wyoming | No cap and no grace period | No grace period set | Case law |
What these pages are (and aren't)
Each state page is a reference for the late-fee cap, the grace period, and the neutral steps to take about an unfair fee. They are deliberately not advice for your specific lease: your written lease and any local ordinance can change the answer, so each page links to the statute and a tenant-rights resource. This is legal information, not legal advice.