What late fees can a landlord charge in Delaware?

Verified July 11, 2026 All Delaware topics →

Pending legislation — not yet law. The rules on this page reflect current law only. The following bills would change it if enacted:

SB 292 (153rd GA, 2026) — 'Grace Peterson Act' — Amends the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code to (1) close the 25 Del. C. § 5102 exclusion loophole that let unlicensed or uncertified residential operators claim exemption from the Code, including eviction procedure, and (2) add § 5512A duties when a tenant's rent is paid from a state reentry-services fund (landlord must assist with a discharge plan and notify the fund administrator and agencies before terminating; noncompliance brings one-year debarment from state funds; affected tenants may stay on without fund payments or terminate on 30-60 days' notice). Takes effect 6 months after enactment.Status: Passed both chambers 2026-06-24; awaiting the Governor's action as of 2026-07-11 (post-adjournment window under Del. Const. art. III, § 18 runs roughly to the end of July 2026). Not law at this verification. If enacted it changes Code-applicability notes (§ 5102), not the four topic numbers. (checked 2026-07-11).
SB 235 (153rd GA, 2026) — Manufactured-home communities only (25 Del. C. ch. 70): repeals the sunset on the Rent Justification Act pilot calculations, making the § 7052A/§ 7052B CPI-linked justified-rent-increase calculations permanently replace the § 7052 grounds for lot-rent increases. Does not touch apartment/site-built rentals under chs. 51-59.Status: Passed both chambers 2026-06-30; awaiting the Governor's action as of 2026-07-11. Out of v1 scope (lot tenancies) but flagged because rent-increase notes reference ch. 70. (checked 2026-07-11).

Delaware caps residential late fees at 5% of the monthly rent and forbids imposing the fee within the first 5 days after rent is due, and a late charge is only allowed at all if the rental agreement provides for one.

Delaware adds a rule found almost nowhere else: the landlord must maintain an office or other permanent place in the same county as the rental unit where rent can be paid on time — and a landlord without one automatically extends the tenant's rent due date by 3 days, pushing the whole late-fee window back with it. The late charge counts as additional rent under the Code, which means an unpaid one can be deducted from the security deposit. Note that the grace window only protects against the fee, not the eviction clock: a landlord may issue the 5-day pay-or-quit demand any time after rent is due, even before a late fee could be charged. Landlords who take cash rent must give a receipt within 15 days and keep cash-payment records for 3 years.

Delaware late fees at a glance

Statutory cap	5% of the monthly rent (25 Del. C. § 5501(d))
Mandatory grace period	5 days
Must be in the lease	Yes
Daily fees	Not addressed as a structure, but any late charge is bounded by the hard 5%-of-monthly-rent ceiling and may not be imposed within 5 days of the due date, so accruing daily fees cannot lawfully exceed 5% of the monthly rent for a late payment.
Reasonableness standard	Not addressed by statute

Notes and caveats

All three load-bearing elements double-read verbatim (delcode HTML + official Title 25 PDF): (1) cap — 'such late charge shall not exceed 5 percent of the monthly rent'; (2) grace — 'shall not be imposed within 5 days of the agreed time for payment' (fee may attach from day 6; grace_period_days=5); (3) must_be_in_lease=true from the conditional lead-in 'Where the rental agreement provides for a late charge' — no lease provision, no fee. THE OFFICE RULE (brief lead confirmed exactly): the landlord must maintain 'in the county in which the rental unit is located ... an office or other permanent place for receipt of payments, where rent may be timely paid'; failure 'shall extend the agreed on time for payment of rent by 3 days beyond the due date' — i.e., the due date itself moves 3 days, and the 5-day no-fee window runs from the extended due date (effectively 8 days for landlords with no in-county payment office). Late charge is 'additional rent' for Code purposes, so it is deductible from the deposit under § 5514(c)(2) and recoverable in a rent action (§ 5502(b)). INTERPLAY: § 5502(a) expressly lets the landlord demand payment and start the 5-day termination notice 'including the time period between the date the rent is due and the date under this Code when late fees may be imposed' — the fee grace period does not delay eviction. reasonableness_standard=null: hard cap, no reasonableness test. Verified negative: no other late-fee provision in Part III (chs. 51/53/55/57 section-list sweeps); no 2025-2026 late-fee legislation found in the full 153rd GA docket sweep.

Statute citations

25 Del. C. § 5501 (d)-(e) Official source
25 Del. C. § 5502 (a) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Delaware Code site (delcode.delaware.gov), each load-bearing section read twice through independent official paths: the delcode HTML chapter pages (25 Del. C. ch. 51 subchapters I-II, ch. 53, ch. 55) and the official Title 25 PDF served from the same host, with every load-bearing figure matching verbatim (1-month deposit cap and its 1-year-lease / month-to-month-after-1-year scope; 20-day return and itemized-list deadline with 10-day tenant objection window; double damages and account-forfeiture penalties; 1-month pet deposit cap; application-fee cap at the greater of 10% or $50; 5% late-charge cap with the 5-day no-imposition window and 3-day extension for no in-county payment office; 48-hour entry notice and the 8:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m. window; 60-day renewal-with-modifications notice with the 45-day tenant rejection right; 60-day month-to-month termination notice with the first-of-following-month start). Sections read in full: 5101, 5102, 5106, 5107, 5108, 5116, 5123, 5124, 5141, 5310, 5311, 5501, 5502, 5509, 5510, 5514, 5514A, 5515, plus complete section listings of ch. 51 subch. I, ch. 53, and ch. 55 as sweep basis for verified negatives (no deposit-interest requirement, no other late-fee or entry provision, no rent-increase tiers or frequency limits, no rent-control preemption statute in Title 25). The Delaware Attorney General's official Summary of the Residential Landlord-Tenant Code corroborates the 60-day rent-increase-notice reading of section 5107 for month-to-month tenancies. 2025-2026 session sweep: the complete 153rd General Assembly docket (all 1,961 pieces of legislation) was retrieved from the official legis.delaware.gov AllLegislation API and title-filtered; one on-topic enactment incorporated (HB 217, 85 Del. Laws c. 295, key-surrender rules, signed 2026-06-24), two passed bills awaiting the Governor flagged (SB 235, SB 292), and three on-topic bills confirmed dead at the 2026-06-30 sine die adjournment (SB 186 deposit e-communications, HB 229 summary-possession service window, HB 467 renters insurance). HB 455 (152nd GA statewide rent cap) confirmed dead in committee in 2024. Wilmington's 2025 rent-stabilization ordinance confirmed failed 6-5 in City Council on 2025-06-05.