When you pay rent late, your landlord can charge the late fee in your lease once any grace period has passed. If the rent stays unpaid, the landlord can serve a written notice to pay or move out and then file an eviction case, which can appear on tenant screening reports for up to seven years. A rent check that bounces leaves the rent unpaid and can add a returned-check fee.

Step 1: A late fee

Your lease sets the fee and the day it starts, and some states limit both. New York bars any late fee until rent is more than five days late and caps it at $50 or 5% of the monthly rent, whichever is less. California sets no dollar cap, but its official tenant guide says a late fee must be a reasonable estimate of what the late payment costs the landlord, and a fee high enough to work as a penalty is not valid. The waiting periods and caps in other states are in how rent grace periods work.

An unpaid late fee is not unpaid rent in these two states. A New York court can evict in a nonpayment case only for unpaid rent, not for late fees or other added charges. In California, a three-day notice to pay rent or quit that also demands late charges is not legally effective.

Step 2: A notice to pay or move out

If rent stays unpaid, a landlord in the states below must give you a written notice before filing an eviction case. Often called a pay-or-quit notice, it sets a short deadline to pay in full or leave:

State	Notice before filing	What paying in full by the deadline does
California	3 days, not counting weekends and court holidays	Keeps your tenancy; the landlord does not have to accept part of the rent
Florida	3 days, not counting weekends and court-observed holidays	Stops the landlord from ending the lease for that missed rent
New York	A 14-day written rent demand	Prevents a nonpayment case; once a case is filed, paying all rent owed before the eviction is carried out gets it dismissed
Texas	At least 3 days, unless the lease sets a different period	If you were not late in any earlier month, the notice must let you pay instead of leaving; if you were, it can simply tell you to move out
Washington	14 days, and it can be served any day after rent is due	Satisfies the notice, so no eviction case can be based on it

New Jersey requires no notice before a landlord files for unpaid rent, unless you live in federally subsidized housing. See pay-or-quit notices explained.

Federal rules can give you 30 days instead of the state period:

Public housing and HUD project-based assistance, such as project-based Section 8: HUD requires at least 30 days' written notice before an eviction for unpaid rent, and the landlord cannot file if you pay what you owe within those 30 days. HUD moved to drop this rule in February 2026, then put the change on hold indefinitely in March 2026.
Properties covered by the CARES Act, including rentals paid with a Housing Choice Voucher and buildings with a federally backed mortgage: the landlord cannot make you leave until 30 days after a notice to vacate. Most courts that have ruled apply this to evictions for unpaid rent, though Iowa's Supreme Court limits it to rent missed during the 2020 eviction moratorium.

Step 3: An eviction case

If the deadline passes without full payment, the landlord can file an eviction lawsuit, called an unlawful detainer case in California. The court papers come with a short deadline to respond. In California you have 10 court days (days that are not weekends or court holidays) to file a written answer; if you miss it, the court can enter a default judgment, meaning you lose the case without raising your defenses and can be evicted. A judgment for the landlord can also cover the unpaid rent and possibly court costs and attorney's fees. In New York, only a sheriff, marshal, or constable can carry out a court's eviction order.

Paying late again and again can lead to eviction even when you always pay in the end. In New Jersey, a landlord can sue to evict a tenant who habitually pays late, after first giving a written notice to cease (a warning to stop paying late) and then a notice to quit, which ends the tenancy, at least one month before filing.

Step 4: Credit and rental history damage

Tenant screening companies, which sell reports to landlords reviewing applications, collect information such as whether tenants paid rent on time and whether they were sued for eviction, according to California's guide. The CFPB says an eviction case can stay on a tenant screening record for up to seven years. If unpaid rent or fees end up with a debt collector and are reported, the credit bureaus can generally keep that negative information on your credit report for seven years too. See how an eviction affects your credit.

What happens if your rent check bounces

A bounced check, one your bank returns unpaid because the account did not have enough money, leaves the rent unpaid. California's guide advises making the check good right away, because otherwise the landlord can serve a three-day notice to pay rent or quit. One bounced payment can bring several charges:

A returned-check fee. In California, the landlord can charge either a reasonable fee your lease authorizes or the state's bad-check service charge of up to $25 for the first bounced check and $35 for each later one, but not both. In New York, the fee must be in your lease and can be the greater of $20 or the landlord's actual costs from the returned check.
A late fee, if the grace period ends before you replace the payment.
A returned-item fee from your own bank, under your account agreement.

A bounce can also change how you are allowed to pay:

Washington: a landlord must normally accept personal checks, but it can refuse them for 9 months after one of yours is returned for insufficient funds or a closed account. It must still take a cashier's check or money order.
California: a landlord can require cash for up to 3 months after a check bounces, by giving written notice with a copy of the bounced check attached. If that changes the payment terms in your rental agreement, the landlord must also give the advance notice required to change those terms, typically 30 days for a month-to-month tenancy.
Other states: read your lease for a clause that requires a cashier's check, money order, or other certified funds after a returned payment. See paying rent by cashier's check or money order.

If you are paying rent that is overdue after a notice, use a cashier's check or money order so the payment cannot bounce, and get a signed receipt.

If you know rent will be late

Contact your landlord before the due date with the amount you can pay and when, and get any agreement in writing. What to do if you can't pay rent this month walks through payment offers, partial payments, and emergency help. For due dates, receipts, fee rules, and which buildings the federal notice rules cover, see rent payment rules for tenants.