Rent Payment Rules for Tenants: Due Dates, Late Fees, and Receipts

Rent is due on the date your lease sets, usually the first of the month, and a landlord can charge a late fee only as your lease and state and local law allow. New York, for example, bars late fees until rent is more than 5 days late and caps them at $50 or 5% of monthly rent, whichever is less, while Massachusetts bars them until rent is 30 days late. New York, Texas, and Washington require a written receipt when you pay in cash.

When is rent due, and when is it late?

Your lease sets the due date. California's official tenant guide notes that most leases make rent due at the start of each rental period, but a lease can set any day, such as the 10th of the month.

A grace period is the number of days after the due date when you can still pay without a late fee. Some states set one by law, shown in the table below. In California, any grace period comes from your lease, and the state's guide says a typical one waives the fee if you pay before the 6th.

In Washington, a grace period delays only the fee: the landlord can serve a 14-day notice to pay or vacate on any day after the rent is due.

If your main income is a regular monthly government benefit that arrives after the due date, a Washington landlord must agree to move the due date up to 5 days later when you ask in writing and can show this. Elsewhere, ask the landlord and get any agreed change in writing. See how rent grace periods work.

How much can a landlord charge for late rent?

Example: your $1,500 rent is due on the 1st, and you pay on the 8th. In New York, the fee can be no more than $50, because 5% of $1,500 is $75 and the law takes the lower figure. In a Texas building with more than 4 units, a fee of up to $150 (10%) counts as reasonable if your lease includes it. A Washington landlord can charge the late fee in your lease because the rent is more than 5 days late, subject to local caps such as Seattle's $10 monthly maximum. A Massachusetts landlord cannot, because the rent is not yet 30 days late.

If your state is not in the table, check its landlord-tenant law or its attorney general's tenant guide before you pay a fee that looks too high. A returned-check fee is a separate charge; see what happens when you pay rent late.

How can you pay, and can the landlord refuse a payment?

Your lease usually sets how you pay, but some states limit which methods a landlord can require or refuse:

• California: a landlord normally cannot require cash or electronic transfer only. It must allow another method, such as a personal check, money order, or cashier's check, and since 2025 it cannot charge a fee for paying by check. After your check bounces or you stop payment on it, the landlord can require cash for up to 3 months, but only after a written notice that includes a copy of the returned check.
• Washington: a landlord must accept a personal check, cashier's check, or money order, and it can refuse cash. It can refuse personal checks for 9 months after one of yours is returned for insufficient funds or a closed account.
• Texas: a landlord must accept cash rent paid on time unless your written lease requires a check, money order, or other traceable payment.

In California, a landlord can refuse a partial payment, or take it and still serve a 3-day notice for the rest. In Florida, accepting partial rent does not waive the landlord's right to end the lease. If your landlord agrees to a payment plan, get it in writing, signed by both of you, with the date the rest is due and the landlord's promise not to start an eviction if you pay by then. See rent payment methods compared.

When does the landlord have to give you a receipt?

It depends on your state and how you pay:

• New York: a written receipt is required when you pay by cash, money order, cashier's check, or any way other than your own personal check. If you pay by personal check, ask once in writing, and the landlord must then give you a receipt every month. The receipt must show the payment date, the amount, the rent period, and your apartment number, and the person who took the payment must sign it and give their title.
• Texas: a landlord who takes cash must give you a written receipt and record the payment in a record book. A tenant who sues over a violation and wins can recover one month's rent or $500, whichever is greater, for each violation, plus court costs and attorney's fees; a landlord who wins the suit can recover its costs and fees from you.
• Washington: a landlord must give a receipt for any cash it accepts, and a written receipt for other payments when you ask.
• California: the state's tenant guide says you are entitled to a written receipt whenever you pay rent, and a canceled check can serve as your receipt.

Keep proof of every payment even when no receipt is required: a canceled check, a bank statement showing the payment cleared, or an online portal confirmation.

What happens if you don't pay on time?

Written notice before filing an eviction case for unpaid rent is not required nationwide: Pennsylvania lets tenants waive the state's notice to quit in their lease. The states below require written notice:

A California notice is not legally effective if it demands more than the rent owed or adds late fees, utility charges, or returned-check fees. In a New York eviction case for nonpayment, you can be evicted only for unpaid rent, not for late fees or other added charges.

In California, paying all the rent the notice demands within the 3 days keeps your tenancy in place. In New York, paying all the rent owed gets the case dismissed at any point until the sheriff or marshal carries out the eviction. In Washington, you can keep your home even after losing in court by paying, within 5 court days (days the court is open) of the judgment, the rent owed, court costs, up to $75 in late fees, and any attorney's fees the court awarded.

Federal rules can require 30 days' notice instead:

• Public housing, or a building with project-based Section 8 or similar HUD rental assistance (a subsidy tied to the unit rather than to you): the landlord must give at least 30 days' written notice before filing for unpaid rent, and it cannot file if you pay the rent owed within those 30 days. HUD moved to repeal this rule in February 2026 but put the repeal on hold in March 2026, so the rule applies until HUD issues a final rule.
• Properties covered by the CARES Act, a 2020 federal law, including Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8 voucher) rentals and properties with a mortgage backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or the Federal Housing Administration: the landlord cannot make you leave until 30 days after it gives you a notice to vacate. Most courts that have ruled on it make the landlord wait those 30 days before filing, but not all courts agree, and no federal agency enforces the rule, so you may have to raise it as a defense in court.

If you get a shorter notice at one of these properties, contact a legal aid office before the deadline. See what to do if you can't pay rent.

When can your landlord raise the rent?

During a fixed-term lease, such as a one-year lease, a California landlord cannot raise the rent unless the lease allows it, and a Washington increase cannot take effect before the lease term ends.

For a month-to-month tenancy, California requires 30 days' written notice for an increase of 10% or less and 90 days for a larger one, counting all increases in the past 12 months against the lowest rent in that period. Those periods apply to personal delivery; mailing the notice from within California adds 5 days, making the minimum notice 35 or 95 days from mailing. Washington requires at least 90 days' written notice, or 30 days when a subsidy sets your rent based on your income.

Both states also cap increases on many units in any 12-month period, at 5% plus inflation in California and 7% plus inflation in Washington, never more than 10%. Washington also bars increases on those units during the first 12 months of a tenancy. See how to handle a rent increase.

How to dispute a charge you don't owe

1. Get the landlord's ledger. Ask in writing for a statement of every charge and payment on your account. In Texas, if you ask, the landlord must give you a written statement of whether you owe a late fee and how much, though its silence does not cancel a fee you owe.
2. Keep paying the rent on time. In Washington, the landlord must apply each payment to rent before late fees, damages, or legal costs, and it cannot make your right to stay depend on paying anything but rent, apart from amounts a court allows in an eviction judgment. Here, rent includes recurring lease charges for use of the home, which can include utilities. The landlord can also treat missed installments for deposits or nonrefundable fees as unpaid rent if the payment plan was established at the start of the tenancy.
3. Dispute in writing and name the rule. Say which charge is wrong, why, and what correction you want, and cite the law that applies, such as New York Real Property Law section 238-a for a late fee over the cap. Under Texas Property Code section 92.019, a landlord that collects a late fee the law does not allow owes you $100, plus three times that fee, plus reasonable attorney's fees.
4. Escalate if the landlord will not fix it. Contact a legal aid office, or file in small claims court for money you paid but did not owe. See how to dispute incorrect rent charges.