Late fee laws by state.

Last checked November 3, 2026

How do late fee laws compare across these five states?

A late fee is a charge in the lease for rent paid after the due date or grace period. The table gives the short answer for residential leases; each state section below has the details and statute sections.

Does Florida cap rent late fees?

No. Part II of Florida Statutes chapter 83, the Florida Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, sets no dollar or percentage cap on late fees and no grace period; the amount and timing come from the lease.

• Cap: none in Part II of chapter 83. (The $20 or 20% late fee in chapter 83 is in Part III, which covers self-storage facilities, not homes.) Because there’s no statutory safe harbor, keep the fee reasonable and state it in the lease.
• Grace period: none required by statute.
• Notice for unpaid rent: if rent isn’t paid when due, the landlord may terminate the rental agreement if the default continues for 3 days, excluding Saturday, Sunday and court-observed holidays, after delivering a written demand for the rent or possession. The statute prescribes the wording, and the notice can’t be waived in the lease (Fla. Stat. § 83.56(3)–(4)). Delivery may be by mail, by hand, by e-mail under § 83.505, or by leaving a copy at the residence if the tenant is absent.

What are Texas’s late fee rules?

Texas allows a late fee only if it’s in a written lease, is reasonable, and rent has stayed unpaid two full days after the due date; a fee of up to 12% (or 10% for larger buildings) is presumed reasonable (Tex. Prop. Code § 92.019).

• Conditions: notice of the fee is in a written lease, the fee is reasonable, and any part of the rent has remained unpaid two full days after the date it was originally due (§ 92.019(a)). For rent due on the 1st, that is commonly read to mean no fee before the 4th.
• Safe harbor: a fee is considered reasonable if it’s no more than 12% of the rent for the rental period in a structure with four or fewer dwelling units, or 10% in a structure with more than four. A higher fee is reasonable only if it’s no more than the landlord’s uncertain damages from the late payment, such as collection costs and overhead (§ 92.019(a-1)).
• Daily fees: a late fee may combine an initial fee and a daily fee; together they count as a single late fee for the limits (§ 92.019(b)).
• Penalty: a landlord who violates the section owes the tenant $100, three times the late fee collected in violation, and reasonable attorney’s fees. A lease clause waiving these rights is void (§ 92.019(c)–(d)).
• Statement on request: a tenant may ask for a written statement of whether a late fee is owed and how much, and the landlord must provide it (§ 92.0191).

Does California cap rent late fees?

No fixed cap. California treats a residential late fee as liquidated damages, which is void unless, when the lease was signed, the landlord’s actual damage from late payment would have been impracticable or extremely difficult to fix (Cal. Civ. Code § 1671(c)–(d)).

• Cap: no dollar or percentage cap in state statute.
• Standard: for a lease of real property used as a dwelling, a liquidated damages clause is void except where the parties agree on an amount presumed to be the damage because it would be impracticable or extremely difficult to fix the actual damage (§ 1671(c)(2), (d)). A late fee far above a landlord’s likely costs of a late payment is at risk of being treated as an unenforceable penalty.
• Grace period: none required by state statute. Some cities, and rent-regulated or subsidized housing, add their own limits.

Does Georgia cap rent late fees?

We found no fixed late fee cap in Georgia’s landlord-tenant chapter (O.C.G.A. Title 44, Chapter 7); the fee comes from the lease, and Georgia’s 2024 Safe at Home Act added a three-business-day notice before a landlord can file for nonpayment of rent or late fees.

• Cap: no fixed statutory cap for residential leases that we could identify. Late fees should be set out in the lease; the state’s Landlord Tenant Handbook lists late charges and grace periods among the terms a lease should state. Have a Georgia attorney review a fee that is high relative to the rent.
• Notice before filing: when a tenant doesn’t pay rent, late fees, utilities or other charges when due, the landlord must give a notice to vacate or pay all past-due amounts within three business days before filing a dispossessory affidavit (O.C.G.A. § 44-7-50(c), as amended by HB 404).
• How the notice is delivered: posted in a sealed envelope conspicuously on the door of the property, and delivered by any additional method the rental agreement provides (§ 44-7-50(d)). These changes apply to residential leases entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2024.

Verification note. Georgia’s official code is published through a public-access site that blocked full-text access with a CAPTCHA, so we confirmed the notice rule from the text of HB 404 and could not confirm by full-text search that no other Georgia statute caps residential late fees. Check with a Georgia attorney before relying on that.

What are North Carolina’s late fee rules?

North Carolina caps residential late fees at $15 or 5% of the monthly rent, whichever is greater, and allows one only when rent is five calendar days or more late (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-46).

• Cap: for monthly rent, no more than $15 or 5% of the monthly rent, whichever is greater; for weekly rent, no more than $4 or 5% of the weekly rent, whichever is greater (§ 42-46(a)).
• Grace period: a late fee is chargeable only if a payment is five calendar days or more late, counting the day after rent was due as day one (§ 42-46(a)).
• Once per payment: a fee may be charged only once for each late payment, and it can’t be deducted from a later rent payment so as to put that payment in default (§ 42-46(b)).
• Other limits: no late fee for unpaid water or sewer charges billed under G.S. 62-110(g) (§ 42-46(d)); for subsidized rent, fees are calculated on the tenant’s share only (§ 42-46(h)(5)); and any lease provision contrary to the section is void (§ 42-46(h)(4)).
• Deposits: fees permitted by § 42-46 are among the permitted uses of a security deposit (§ 42-51(a)(8)).

How should a landlord set a late fee?

• Write the fee, the grace period and how it’s calculated into the lease, in plain numbers.
• Start from your state’s cap or safe harbor where there is one, and from a figure you could justify as your real cost of a late payment where there isn’t.
• Charge it once per late payment and apply it the same way to every tenant.
• Keep the lease terms and the rent ledger together. In LandlordOS, each lease in lease management has its own late fee and grace days, and with automatic late fees switched on, rent collection adds the fee to the ledger once, when rent is still unpaid after the grace period.

Sources

Statutes as published by each state’s legislature, checked November 3, 2026.

• Florida: Fla. Stat. § 83.56, termination of rental agreement (3-day notice), and Fla. Stat. chapter 83, Parts II and III
• Texas: Tex. Prop. Code §§ 92.019 and 92.0191, late payment of rent; fees
• California: Cal. Civ. Code § 1671, liquidated damages
• Georgia: HB 404 (2024), the Safe at Home Act, amending O.C.G.A. § 44-7-50
• Georgia: Georgia Landlord Tenant Handbook, Department of Community Affairs (revised August 29, 2024)
• North Carolina: G.S. 42-46, authorized fees, costs and expenses, and G.S. 42-51, permitted uses of the deposit

Related: security deposit laws by state for the same five states.