Is there a legal limit on late fees in North Dakota?

No statutory cap (see reasonableness standard and notes). North Dakota has no late-fee statute, so enforceability runs through general contract law.

Can a landlord charge a daily late fee in North Dakota?

No North Dakota statute addresses daily late charges. A daily charge is a lease term, bounded only by the contract rules on penalties and liquidated damages (9-08-03, 9-08-04) and unconscionability review of residential rental agreements (47-16-13.3).

What late fees can a landlord charge in North Dakota?

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North Dakota has no statute capping residential late fees and no statutory grace period — a 2025 bill to cap late fees (SB 2236, amending the rent-payment statute) failed in the Senate 7-39, so late charges remain purely a matter of the lease, policed only by North Dakota's contract rules on penalties and liquidated damages (a penalty imposed by contract is void, and a clause fixing damages in advance is void unless the parties agreed on an amount presumed to be the damage in a case where actual damages would be impracticable or extremely difficult to fix) and by unconscionability review of residential rental agreements.

Cited to N.D. Cent. Code ch. 47-16 (complete section list — no late-fee provision) and 6 more cited sources · Verified October 1, 2026

Absent a contrary agreement, rent for lodgings is payable monthly at the end of each month (47-16-20). What North Dakota does regulate is payment-method fees: a landlord may not charge a tenant any fee for accepting cash, a check, or a money order for rent or any other payment required under the lease (47-16-20.1). The three-day figures in North Dakota law are eviction mechanics, not a grace period: nonpayment becomes an eviction ground three days after rent is due, after which the landlord must serve a three-day written notice of intention to evict.

North Dakota 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	No North Dakota statute addresses daily late charges. A daily charge is a lease term, bounded only by the contract rules on penalties and liquidated damages (9-08-03, 9-08-04) and unconscionability review of residential rental agreements (47-16-13.3).
Reasonableness standard	North Dakota has no late-fee statute, so enforceability runs through general contract law. N.D. Cent. Code 9-08-04 voids any contract term fixing damages for breach in advance EXCEPT an amount presumed to be the damage where it would be impracticable or extremely difficult to fix actual damages, and 47-16-13.3 lets a court refuse to enforce, sever, or limit an unconscionable provision of a residential rental agreement.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, North Dakota Late Fee Laws (verified October 1, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/late-fees/north-dakota/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

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

Notes and caveats

No cap and no grace period — a real statutory absence, not a gap — Both answers are empty because no such statute exists. Chapter 47-16's rent-payment sections are 47-16-19 (term presumed from the rent period), 47-16-20 (payment timing), 47-16-20.1 (payment-method fee ban), 47-16-21 (proportionate rent), and 47-16-22 and 47-16-23 (rent under a lease for life); none sets a late fee or a grace period.
Dead-bill debunk: the 2025 late-fee cap failed 7-39 — SB 2236 would have amended 47-16-20 to cap late fees at eight percent of the overdue rent payment; it failed the Senate on 2025-02-04, 7-39. SB 2237, which would have given the labor commissioner oversight of landlord-tenant disputes, failed 5-41 the same day. Charts asserting a new North Dakota late-fee cap or complaint process are citing dead bills.
Stale-source trap: SB 2366 was never enacted — A 2025 eviction guide describes SB 2366 (contents of the notice of intention to evict) as enacted. It failed, 8-37.
'Must be in the lease' is contract law here, not statute — That answer is empty rather than a 'Yes' because no statute conditions a late fee on a lease term. The requirement comes from ordinary contract law — and 9-08-04 voids advance damage-fixing clauses except a valid liquidated-damages provision, which by its nature must have been agreed.
The three-day figures are eviction mechanics, not a grace period — 47-32-01(4) makes eviction maintainable when a tenant 'fails to pay rent for three days after the rent is due,' and 47-32-02 requires three days' written notice of intention to evict. Both are eviction procedure; neither is a fee grace period.
The payment-method fee ban reaches late fees too — 47-16-20.1 bars any fee for accepting cash, a check, or a money order for rent or 'any other payment required by the landlord under a lease,' so a surcharge for paying a late fee by check is also barred.

Common questions: North Dakota 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 North Dakota?: No statutory cap (see reasonableness standard and notes). North Dakota has no late-fee statute, so enforceability runs through general contract law.
Is there a grace period before rent is late in North Dakota?: None mandated statewide.
Does a late fee have to be written into the lease in North Dakota?: Not addressed by statute.
Can a landlord charge a daily late fee in North Dakota?: No North Dakota statute addresses daily late charges. A daily charge is a lease term, bounded only by the contract rules on penalties and liquidated damages (9-08-03, 9-08-04) and unconscionability review of residential rental agreements (47-16-13.3).

Citations

N.D. Cent. Code ch. 47-16 (complete section list — no late-fee provision) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D. Cent. Code § 47-16-20 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D. Cent. Code § 47-16-20.1 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D. Cent. Code § 47-16-13.3 · (1) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D. Cent. Code § 9-08-03 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D. Cent. Code § 9-08-04 (verified 2026) Official source
SB 2236 (2025) — FAILED late-fee cap bill, official bill overview (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text in the official North Dakota Century Code chapter PDFs on ndlegis.gov on October 1, 2026: chapter 47-16 in full, 47-32-01 and 47-32-02, 9-08-03 and 9-08-04, and 47-30.2-04. The Legislative Assembly's code page states that the posted code reflects all changes approved by the 69th Legislative Assembly, and the chapter 47-16 file already prints the text that took effect on January 1, 2026. Figures read: one-month deposit cap; two-month felony and prior-judgment exceptions; pet deposit of the greater of $2,500 or two months' rent; 30-day itemized return; nine-month interest threshold; treble damages; 30-day written change-of-terms notice covering rent; 25-day tenant termination after a change notice; one-calendar-month termination of a month-to-month tenancy; no entry-hour figure. Amendment history read in the session laws: 2015 ch. 312 (HB 1192, separate pet deposit), 2017 ch. 316 (HB 1220, felony exception), 2019 ch. 379 (HB 1150, prior-judgment exception), 2021 ch. 337 (SB 2048, unclaimed-property cross-reference), 2025 ch. 145 (HB 1489, 47-16-17.1(2)(a), effective January 1, 2026) and 2025 ch. 423 (HB 1610, new 47-16-20.1, effective August 1, 2025). 2025 bills that failed, read on the official bill pages: HB 1272 (inspections and deposits, House 41-47 on 2025-02-07), SB 2236 (late-fee cap, Senate 7-39 on 2025-02-04), SB 2237 (5-41) and SB 2366 (8-37); SB 2238 was enacted as 47-32-05 (2025 ch. 427, effective August 1, 2025). The 69th Legislative Assembly also sat in special session on January 21-23 and September 2-4, 2026, and neither session amended Title 47. There is no regular session in 2026; the next is January 2027. Negative findings (no late-fee statute, no entry-hour figure, no deposit-interest rate figure, no frequency limits) rest on the complete section list of chapter 47-16.