Late Rent Fee Limits in Tennessee

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Five days, with the due date counted

Tenn. Code § 66-28-201(d) starts the grace period on the day rent is due and expressly includes that day in the count. If rent is due on the first, the five days are the first through the fifth, and a late-payment fee may begin after that period.

There is a narrow calendar extension. If the fifth day is a Sunday or a legal holiday, the landlord may not impose a late-payment charge when the tenant pays on the next business day. The current text does not give the same extension merely because the fifth day is a Saturday.

Ten percent of the rent actually past due

The same subsection reaches "any charge or fee, however described" and says it "shall not exceed ten percent" of the rent past due. The base is therefore the unpaid rent, not automatically the full monthly rent. For example, if $400 of rent remains unpaid after the grace period, the statutory ceiling is $40.

Section 66-28-201(d) does not separately prescribe a one-time fee, a daily fee, or a written assessment notice. Whatever structure the agreement uses remains subject to the grace period and the 10% ceiling in a covered county.

The county line matters

The late-fee rule is part of the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. Tenn. Code § 66-28-102(a), as amended by 2012 Public Chapter 847, uses a county population threshold of more than 75,000 under the 2010 or a later federal census. The Tennessee Department of Health's current housing page confirms that coverage line.

That means § 66-28-201(d)'s 10% cap and five-day grace do not govern an ordinary tenancy in a county outside the Act. The lease and other applicable law must be checked instead; do not apply the URLTA numbers statewide without first checking the county.

What trips people up

Day one is the rent due date. The statute does not begin counting on the next day. A form that gives five additional full days changes the statutory count.

Saturday is not named in the current extension. The statute protects the next-business-day payment when day five is a Sunday or legal holiday. An older version named Saturday, but the current text does not.

Some public housing follows the Act only where federal rules allow it. Under § 66-28-102(d), HUD-regulated housing owned by a governmental or nonprofit entity is outside the chapter to the extent federal regulation conflicts with state law, but the chapter still applies where those regulations defer to state law.

Common questions

Rent was due Monday. When can the fee start? Count Monday as day one. The five-day period ordinarily runs through Friday, so the fee may be charged after that period if rent remains unpaid.

Is the cap 10% of the full month's rent? It is 10% of the "amount of rent past due." A partial payment can therefore change the calculation base.

Does every Tennessee county use this cap? No. Section 66-28-201(d) is part of an Act limited to counties over 75,000 people under the applicable federal census.

Statutes and sources

• Tenn. Code § 66-28-201(d), enacted in 2011 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 272, § 4 — five-day grace calculation, Sunday/legal-holiday extension, and 10% cap.

  (d) There shall be a five-day grace period beginning the day the rent was due to the day a fee for the late payment of rent may be charged. The date the rent was due shall be included in the calculation of the five-day grace period. If the last day of the five-day grace period occurs on a Sunday or legal holiday, as defined in § 15-1-101, the landlord shall not impose any charge or fee for the late payment of rent, provided that the rent is paid on the next business day. Any charge or fee, however described, which is charged by the landlord for the late payment of rent, shall not exceed ten percent ( 10%) of the amount of rent past due.

Official source: https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/acts/107/pub/pc0272.pdf (accessed 2026-08-24)

• Tenn. Code § 66-28-102(a), amended by 2012 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 847, § 1 — current county-population threshold.

  SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 66-28-102(a), is amended by deleting the language "sixty-eight thousand (68,000), according to the 1970 federal census or any subsequent federal census" and substituting instead the language "seventy-five thousand (75,000) according to the 2010 federal census or any subsequent federal census".

Official source: https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/acts/107/pub/pc0847.pdf (accessed 2026-08-24)

• Tenn. Code § 66-28-102(d), enacted in 2011 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 272, § 1 — HUD-regulated public-housing conflict rule.

  (d) This chapter shall not apply to any occupancy in a public housing unit or other housing unit that is subject to regulation by the department of housing and urban development and owned by a governmental entity or non-profit corporation to the extent such regulation conflicts with state law, but shall apply to the extent that any such regulations defer to the application of state law.

Official source: https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/acts/107/pub/pc0272.pdf (accessed 2026-08-24)