Late Fees on Partial Rent Payments, by State

Whether you can charge a late fee on a partial payment depends on your state's grace period and on what its cap is calculated from. Most statutes say nothing specific about partial payments, so the basis of the cap does the work: if the cap is a percentage of the full rent, a partial payment does not lower it, and if it is a percentage of the unpaid amount, it does. Texas is the exception that speaks directly: a fee is allowed once any portion of the rent has stayed unpaid for two full days, and a fee up to 12% (structures of four units or fewer) or 10% of the rent is presumed reasonable.

This guide is a general explainer of what each state's statute says, not a ruling on any particular tenancy. For your own situation, ask a local attorney or your state's housing agency. Cities and counties can add rules of their own, and federally assisted housing follows federal rules, so a state table is only part of the picture.

Why the "basis" decides what a partial payment does

Every state cap is some percentage or dollar figure of something. Read that "something" first.

• Full rent. The cap is a share of the rent for the period (North Carolina, New York, New Mexico, Texas, and the percentage options in Oregon). If a tenant pays $1,000 of $1,500, the cap is still computed on $1,500.
• Unpaid or past-due rent. The cap is a share of what is still owed (Maryland, Tennessee, Colorado, Minnesota, Connecticut). The same $1,000 payment drops the base to $500.
• The lower of the two. Virginia takes the lesser of a share of the periodic rent and a share of the remaining balance.

The second thing to read is the grace period, which says when a fee can first be charged at all.

State-by-state limits

All figures below are for a monthly rental unless noted. "Cap" is the statutory ceiling on a single late fee. Citations are in the next section.

State	Cap	Grace period	What the cap is based on
Colorado	Greater of $50 or 5%	Fee only if rent is late by at least 7 calendar days; the fee must be in the rental agreement	5% of the past-due rent payment
Connecticut	Lesser of $5 per day up to $50, or 5%	Rent unpaid for 9 days after the due date (4 for a one-week tenancy)	5% of the delinquent rent payment
Maryland	5%	None stated in the late-fee provision	The unpaid rent due for the rental period that was delinquent
Minnesota	8%	None; the written lease must say when a fee applies	The overdue rent payment
New Mexico	5% per rental period in default	None stated in the statute; applies if the rental agreement provides for a fee	The rent for the rental period (rent only, not deposits or utilities)
New York	Lesser of $50 or 5%	No fee unless the rent is not paid within 5 days of the due date	5% of the monthly rent
North Carolina	Greater of $15 or 5%	Fee only if rent is 5 or more calendar days late; day one is the day after the due date	5% of the monthly rent
Oregon	A reasonable flat amount, or 5% of periodic rent per 5-day period, or a per-day amount up to 6% of the flat fee	No fee unless rent is not received by the 4th day of the rental period	Periodic rent payment (for the 5% option)
Tennessee	10%	5 days, with the due date counted as day one	The rent past due
Texas	A fee up to 12% (structure of 4 units or fewer) or 10% (more than 4) is presumed reasonable; a higher fee must be justified by the landlord's actual damages	Rent unpaid two full days after the due date	The rent for the rental period
Virginia	Lesser of 10% of periodic rent or 10% of remaining balance	Statute's default terms treat rent as late after the 5th	See cap

A few details that change the numbers:

• Weekly rent. Maryland caps a weekly-rent late penalty at $3 per week or $12 per month. North Carolina's cap for weekly rent is the greater of $4 or 5% of the weekly rent. Connecticut shortens its grace period to 4 days for a one-week tenancy.
• One fee per late payment. North Carolina allows the fee only once for each late payment, and Connecticut allows only one late charge on a delinquent rent payment no matter how long it stays unpaid.
• Lease first. Minnesota, Oregon, Texas and Virginia require the late fee to be in a written rental agreement. New Mexico allows it if the rental agreement provides for one.
• Subsidized rent. Connecticut, Minnesota and North Carolina compute the fee on the tenant's share of the rent when a government or other program pays the rest, and Colorado bars a fee on any portion of the rent a subsidy provider is responsible for paying.
• Tennessee's scope. The state's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, which holds the late-fee limit, applies only in counties with a population over 75,000 under the 2010 federal census or any later federal census, so check whether your county is covered. If the last day of the grace period is a Sunday or legal holiday, no fee may be charged if rent is paid the next business day.
• Oregon on partial payments. The statute does not address them directly, but its per-day and per-5-day charges run "until that rent payment, not including any late charge, is paid in full," and a tenant can cure a nonpayment notice by paying only the delinquent rent, without the late charge.

Worked example: $1,500 rent, $1,000 paid on the 3rd

A tenant owes $1,500 due on the 1st and pays $1,000 on the 3rd. $500 is still unpaid. Here is the most each state's cap would allow once its grace period has passed with the $500 still outstanding. These are illustrations of the wording, not a prediction of how a court would treat any case.

State	Calculation	Maximum fee
North Carolina	Greater of $15 or 5% of $1,500 ($75)	$75
New Mexico	5% of $1,500	$75
Texas (4 units or fewer)	12% of $1,500	$180
Texas (more than 4 units)	10% of $1,500	$150
New York	Lesser of $50 or 5% of $1,500 ($75)	$50
Virginia	Lesser of 10% of $1,500 ($150) or 10% of the $500 balance ($50)	$50
Tennessee	10% of the $500 past due	$50
Colorado	Greater of $50 or 5% of $500 ($25)	$50
Minnesota	8% of the $500 overdue	$40
Maryland	5% of the $500 unpaid	$25
Connecticut	Lesser of $50 or 5% of $500 ($25)	$25

Three patterns stand out:

1. Full-rent states ignore the payment. North Carolina and New Mexico allow up to $75 whether the tenant paid nothing, $1,000 or $1,499, as long as the grace period has passed and some rent is still owed.
2. Unpaid-balance states shrink the fee. Maryland's cap falls to $25 on the same facts. Had the tenant paid nothing, it would have been 5% of $1,500, or $75.
3. Flat dollar floors and ceilings can swamp the percentage. Colorado's "greater of $50 or 5%" and New York's "lesser of $50 or 5%" both land on $50 here, for opposite reasons.

Two readings in the table are the ones to hold loosely. Connecticut and Minnesota say "delinquent rent payment" and "overdue rent payment," and the table treats that as the amount still unpaid; the statutes do not spell out how a partial payment is counted. And in New York, where the statute bars a charge unless rent is not paid within five days of its due date, the text does not say whether a partial payment counts as paying.

States with no statutory cap

Some states leave the amount to the lease and to general contract law, which asks whether the fee is reasonable.

• California. No statute sets a late fee amount or grace period. A fee in a residential lease is a liquidated damages clause under Civil Code section 1671(d), which is void unless it was impracticable or extremely difficult to fix the actual damage and the amount is a reasonable estimate.
• Washington. There is no dollar or percentage cap. RCW 59.18.170 does say a landlord may not charge a late fee for rent paid within five days following its due date, and for rent more than five days late, a fee can run from the day after the due date.

Check your own state's landlord-tenant statute or housing agency page: a state with no cap can still have a grace period, a notice requirement or a local ordinance.

Sources

Each rule above comes from the statute for that state:

• Colorado: C.R.S. § 38-12-105 (grace period, cap and past-due basis)
• Connecticut: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47a-15a
• Maryland: Md. Code, Real Property § 8-208(d)(3)
• Minnesota: Minn. Stat. § 504B.177
• New Mexico: N.M. Stat. § 47-8-15, as amended by Senate Bill 267 (2025)
• New York: N.Y. Real Property Law § 238-a(2)
• North Carolina: N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-46
• Oregon: ORS 90.260
• Tennessee: Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-28-201(d), and § 66-28-102 for the counties it covers
• Texas: Tex. Prop. Code § 92.019
• Virginia: Va. Code § 55.1-1204(E)
• California: Cal. Civ. Code § 1671
• Washington: RCW 59.18.170

Keeping partial payments straight

Whatever your state says, the arithmetic is easier when each payment is its own dated line, so you can see when the balance changed and what the fee was calculated on. The rent payment tracker guide shows a ledger layout with a partial payment and a late fee. If you would rather not do it by hand, Resida's rent collection calculates late fees from the terms in your lease and records each payment against it, and lease management is where those terms live. You still set the lease terms, so check them against your state's rule first.