Is there a legal limit on late fees in Alaska?

No statutory cap (see reasonableness standard and notes). Alaska sets no statutory cap, formula, or reasonableness standard for late fees. The only brakes are the prohibited-provisions list of AS 34.03.040, the good-faith obligation of AS 34.03.320, and common-law contract and liquidated-damages principles.

Can a landlord charge a daily late fee in Alaska?

Alaska's statutes do not address daily late fees, so such a fee is neither authorised nor barred. A compounding daily fee would have to survive ordinary liquidated-damages and penalty scrutiny in court, with no statutory safe harbor either way.

What late fees can a landlord charge in Alaska?

Verified July 11, 2026 All Alaska topics →

Legislative changes ahead — not yet in force. The rules on this page reflect the law in force today. The following measure would change it:

HB 115 (34th Legislature, 2025-2026) — Would add AS 34.03.020(f): a landlord could not raise rent more than once per calendar year and would have to give written notice at least 90 days before the increase takes effect; if a tenancy ends without that notice having been given, the unit could not be re-rented above the old rent until 90 days after termination (anti-evasion clause). Applies to rental agreements entered into on or after the effective date. Would convert Alaska from a derivation state (no express rent-increase notice statute) to an express 90-day state.Status: Introduced 2025 (Rep. Gray); referred to House State Affairs and Labor & Commerce 2025-02-26; no committee action since. As of 2026-07-12 the official BASIS bill page still showed status (H) STA with an unchanged status date. Alive until the 34th Legislature adjourns sine die. (checked 2026-07-12).

Alaska sets no cap on residential late fees and mandates no grace period - rent is payable without demand or notice at the time and place the parties agreed (AS 34.03.020(c)), and the landlord-tenant act never mentions late charges at all.

Cited to AS 34.03.020 (a), (c) and 4 more Alaska statutes · Verified July 11, 2026

A late fee is therefore purely a creature of the rental agreement, policed only by contract law: the state's official guidance says a small flat-rate late or NSF charge that reasonably approximates the landlord's actual costs may be legal, and that no automatic charge is enforceable unless the parties agreed to it beforehand. Two Alaska-specific wrinkles matter in practice: 'rent' is statutorily defined as the uniform periodic payment due the landlord, so unpaid late fees are not unpaid rent - a tenant current on rent cannot be evicted for owing late fees - and Alaska omitted the uniform act's unconscionability clause, so an abusive fee is attacked through ordinary penalty-clause doctrine rather than a statutory backstop.

Alaska late fees at a glance

Statutory cap	No statutory cap (see reasonableness standard and notes)
Mandatory grace period	None mandated statewide
Must be in the lease	Not addressed by statute
Daily fees	Alaska's statutes do not address daily late fees, so such a fee is neither authorised nor barred. A compounding daily fee would have to survive ordinary liquidated-damages and penalty scrutiny in court, with no statutory safe harbor either way. Official Department of Law guidance contemplates only 'a small flat-rate late charge or NSF fee that reasonably approximates the landlord's actual costs.'
Reasonableness standard	Alaska sets no statutory cap, formula, or reasonableness standard for late fees. The only brakes are the prohibited-provisions list of AS 34.03.040, the good-faith obligation of AS 34.03.320, and common-law contract and liquidated-damages principles. The Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act is silent on late charges, and Alaska's URLTA enactment omitted the uniform act's unconscionability section. The state's official guidance (Dept. of Law pamphlet; Court System PUB-30) says the Act 'does not state whether landlords may assess late charges,' that a small flat-rate charge reasonably approximating the landlord's actual costs 'may be legal,' and that no automatic late or NSF charge is enforceable unless agreed upon beforehand.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Alaska Late Fee Laws (verified July 11, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/late-fees/alaska/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Alaska statute in the citations section below.

Check a late fee against the Alaska rules — free, no signup, built on the same verified Alaska rules as this page.

Notes and caveats

The statute is silent on late fees — The words 'late fee,' 'late charge,' and 'liquidated' appear nowhere in the chapter's 44 sections, and both official guidance documents state the Act is silent. No cap, no grace period.
A tenant current on rent cannot be evicted over late fees — 'Rent' means 'the uniform periodic payment due the landlord, however denominated' (AS 34.03.360(18)), so late fees fall outside it. Official guidance: 'a tenant cannot be evicted for failure to pay late fees if the tenant is current on rent payments.'
'Agreed beforehand' is contract law, not statute — No STATUTE conditions late fees on the rental agreement — the requirement comes from contract law as restated in official DOL guidance ('no automatic late charge or NSF fee is legally enforceable unless it has been agreed upon beforehand') — and rental agreements may be oral (AS 34.03.360(19)).
No unconscionability backstop — Alaska's URLTA enactment has NO unconscionability section (uniform act sec. 1.303 was not adopted), and AS 34.03.040's prohibited-provisions list — waivers, confessed judgment, exculpation, landlord's attorney fees — does not address fees. An abusive fee is attacked through ordinary penalty-clause doctrine.
Usury-cap claim is speculative — The secondary-source claim that the AS 45.45.010 usury statute (10.5% default) caps percentage-based late fees is a speculative extension of a loan-interest statute, and no Alaska appellate decision fixing a late-fee standard was found.
NSF checks are a separate regime — Bounced checks carry their own civil-penalty regime outside the landlord-tenant act; official guidance mentions lease-based NSF fees, but that is not a rent late-fee rule.

Common questions: Alaska late fees

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

Is there a legal limit on late fees in Alaska?: No statutory cap (see reasonableness standard and notes). Alaska sets no statutory cap, formula, or reasonableness standard for late fees. The only brakes are the prohibited-provisions list of AS 34.03.040, the good-faith obligation of AS 34.03.320, and common-law contract and liquidated-damages principles.
Is there a grace period before rent is late in Alaska?: None mandated statewide.
Does a late fee have to be written into the lease in Alaska?: Not addressed by statute.
Can a landlord charge a daily late fee in Alaska?: Alaska's statutes do not address daily late fees, so such a fee is neither authorised nor barred. A compounding daily fee would have to survive ordinary liquidated-damages and penalty scrutiny in court, with no statutory safe harbor either way.

Statute citations

AS 34.03.020 (a), (c) (verified 2026) Official source
AS 34.03.360 (18) (verified 2026) Official source
AS 34.03.040 (a)-(b) (verified 2026) Official source
Alaska Dept. of Law, The Alaska Landlord & Tenant Act: what it means to you (2024) p. 4 ('Late charges') (verified 2026) Official source
Alaska Court System, PUB-30 Alaska Landlord and Tenant Act handbook (10/18) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Alaska State Legislature site (www.akleg.gov, Alaska Statutes 2024 infobase, read via its print-format section pages): AS 34.03.070, 34.03.140, and 34.03.290 each read twice through independent paths (the single-section view plus a different-range view) with byte-identical results, and AS 34.03.020 read twice to verify the negative (no rent-increase language). The complete chapter (all 44 sections, 34.03.010-34.03.380) was read in one pass and every section heading enumerated for the verified-negative sweeps (no late-fee, grace-period, interest, unconscionability, rent-control, or preemption provision). Every figure that decides an answer here was additionally reconciled against three more sources: the enrolled text of HB 282 (28th Leg.), Ch. 27 SLA 2014, read in full on the official BASIS bill-text system (pins the pet-deposit subsection, the per-tenant trust-accounting rules, and the 30-day damages exception to the 14-day return track, all added 2014); the Alaska Department of Law's official 2024 pamphlet 'The Alaska Landlord & Tenant Act: what it means to you' (law.alaska.gov); and the Alaska Court System's PUB-30 handbook (public.courts.alaska.gov, 10/18 ed.). FindLaw's mirror (current through 2025-01-01) matched the official 34.03.070 text verbatim as a second-path check. Preemption negative run against a single-pass official sweep of AS Title 29 (Municipal Government, chs. 29.10-29.71 including 29.35 powers and 29.40 planning): zero rent-control or landlord-tenant provisions. Legislative check 2026-07-11 on official BASIS: all 97 bills passed by the 34th Legislature (2025-2026, status dates through 2026-07-09) enumerated - none on-topic (SB 50, Ch. 19 SLA 25, is municipal comprehensive planning only); full introduced-bill sweep found one pending on-topic bill, HB 115 (90-day rent-increase notice), idle in House State Affairs since 2025-02-26 - flagged, not incorporated.