What late fees can a landlord charge in Massachusetts?

Verified July 8, 2026 All Massachusetts topics →

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

HD2501 / 'An Act enabling local options for tenant protections' (194th General Court, 2025-2026) — Would repeal G.L. c. 40P (the Massachusetts Rent Control Prohibition Act) and replace it with a local-option regime letting municipalities cap annual rent increases at the lesser of CPI or 5% and adopt just-cause eviction. Perennial refile of prior sessions' H.1304/H.1378/H.2103, none of which advanced.Status: Filed in the 194th General Court; in committee; not enacted as of the checked date. Chapter 40P remains fully in force. (checked 2026-07-08).

Massachusetts law forbids any late fee, interest, or penalty on unpaid rent until the rent is a full 30 days overdue — the longest mandatory grace period in the country — and any lease clause purporting to charge earlier is void and unenforceable.

The statute caps the timing, not the amount: once rent is 30 days late a lease-based fee may be charged, subject to general limits on contractual penalties and the consumer-protection regulations. A fee must be in the lease to be collected at all, and because putting a conflicting fee provision in a lease and trying to enforce it is itself a security-deposit forfeiture trigger under § 15B(6)(c), an illegal early late-fee clause can cost a landlord the entire deposit. Note that the 14-day nonpayment notice to quit under § 12 operates independently — a landlord can start eviction well before day 30 even though no fee may be charged.

Massachusetts late fees at a glance

Statutory cap	No statutory cap (see reasonableness standard and notes)
Mandatory grace period	30 days
Must be in the lease	Yes
Daily fees	Not before day 30: any interest or penalty structure — daily or otherwise — is void to the extent it accrues within 30 days of the due date (§ 15B(1)(c)). After 30 days no statute caps the amount, but penalty-style fees remain subject to liquidated-damages doctrine and c. 93A unfair-practice limits.
Reasonableness standard	No statutory dollar or percentage cap exists once the 30-day threshold passes; general contract principles (fees must be a reasonable pre-estimate of damages, not a penalty) and the Attorney General's 940 CMR 3.17 unfair-practices regulations police excess.

Notes and caveats

grace_period_days is 30 per § 15B(1)(c); statutory_cap is null because the statute regulates timing, not amount. The interaction with § 15B(6)(c) (conflicting lease provision + attempted enforcement forfeits the deposit) is the practical teeth and is worth the page's answer box. The 30-day fee bar vs. 14-day eviction notice distinction is a common point of confusion — page copy must separate them.

Statute citations

G.L. c. 186, § 15B (1)(c), (8) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Massachusetts General Court site (malegislature.gov): G.L. c. 186, § 15B read in full (current text including the St. 2025, c. 9, §§ 54-55 amendments effective 2025-08-01), c. 186, § 12 read in full, c. 186 chapter index and c. 40P location confirmed on malegislature.gov, cross-checked against the Mass.gov official law-library pages on security deposits and landlord-tenant law (which also confirm c. 40P's continued force and the 2025 broker-fee change to c. 112, § 87DDD1/2).