Is there a legal limit on late fees in Virginia?

The lesser of 10% of the periodic rent or 10% of the remaining balance due and owed by the tenant (§ 55.1-1204(E)). The hard cap displaces any general reasonableness test. No late charge may be imposed at all unless the WRITTEN rental agreement provides for it, and no charge may exceed the lesser of 10% of the periodic rent or 10% of the remaining balance owed.

Does a late fee have to be written into the lease in Virginia?

Yes — in Virginia a late fee must be stated in the lease.

Can a landlord charge a daily late fee in Virginia?

No structure is specified; any fee arrangement must stay within the lesser-of-10% cap, which as a per-period ceiling forecloses meaningful daily accrual.

What late fees can a landlord charge in Virginia?

Verified July 9, 2026 Correction August 12, 2026 All Virginia topics →

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

HB 678 (2026), c. 1066 — Already CHAPTERED but not yet effective: on July 1, 2027, § 55.1-1204(K)'s rent-increase notice for landlords with more than four units extends from 60 to 90 days before the end of the rental agreement term, and the notice must give the tenant a renewal-decision deadline no sooner than 30 days after delivery. The current 60-day rule (the figure shown on this page) governs until then.Status: Enacted 2026; effective 2027-07-01 per the official code site's version label (one Realtor-association summary says January 1, 2027 — the official 'Effective July 1, 2027' code version controls). Not incorporated until effective. (checked 2026-07-09).
HB 278 / SB 355 (2026) — local rent regulation ('anti-rent gouging') enabling act — Would let localities adopt rent-increase regulation. Failed in 2026: Senate committee voted 11-4 to continue the bill to the 2027 session, and the Virginia Housing Commission opened a study of local rent regulation in June 2026 — expect a 2027 return. Predecessor HB 2175 (2025, 3% local cap enabling) also died.Status: Continued to the 2027 session; not enacted. § 55.1-1201's supersession clause and the Dillon Rule continue to bar local rent control. (checked 2026-07-09).
HB 329 (2026), c. 1111 — Effective January 1, 2027, § 55.1-1258's retaliation rules expand: the lists of prohibited retaliatory acts and protected tenant conduct both grow, a tenant may recover actual damages and assert retaliation as a defense in any action brought for possession, and failing to renew the tenancy of a Housing Choice Voucher holder without good cause becomes a protected ground. The parallel § 55.1-1314 (Manufactured Home Lot Rental Act) changes with it.Status: Enacted 2026 (c. 1111); effective 2027-01-01 per the chapter. Not incorporated until effective. (checked 2026-08-12).
HB 95 (2026) — Effective July 1, 2027, landlords with 4+ units must offer payment plans for unpaid rent, with no additional late fees accruing while the tenant complies — a conditional overlay on the § 55.1-1204(E) late-fee rules.Status: Enacted 2026 (c. 1105); effective 2027-07-01 per the chapter's own enactment clause. Not incorporated until effective. (checked 2026-08-12).

Virginia caps residential late fees at the LESSER of 10% of the periodic rent or 10% of the remaining balance the tenant actually owes — so a tenant who has paid most of the month's rent can only be charged 10% of the small unpaid remainder, not 10% of the full rent, a distinction many summaries flatten into '10% of rent.' The fee must be provided for in a written rental agreement; with no written lease there is no late fee at all — instead the statutory default tenancy kicks in, under which rent is due the first of the month and 'considered late if not paid by the fifth.' That fifth-of-the-month rule is the source of a persistent five-day-grace-period myth: it applies only when no written lease was offered, and written leases carry no statutory grace period.

Cited to Va. Code § 55.1-1204 (C), (E) · Verified July 9, 2026

Two enacted changes are worth a calendar note: nonpayment pay-or-quit notices lengthened from 5 to 14 days on July 1, 2026, and from January 1, 2027 landlords with four or more units must offer payment plans during which no additional late fees accrue.

Virginia late fees at a glance

Statutory cap	The lesser of 10% of the periodic rent or 10% of the remaining balance due and owed by the tenant (§ 55.1-1204(E))
Mandatory grace period	None mandated statewide
Must be in the lease	Yes
Daily fees	No structure is specified; any fee arrangement must stay within the lesser-of-10% cap, which as a per-period ceiling forecloses meaningful daily accrual.
Reasonableness standard	The hard cap displaces any general reasonableness test. No late charge may be imposed at all unless the WRITTEN rental agreement provides for it, and no charge may exceed the lesser of 10% of the periodic rent or 10% of the remaining balance owed.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Virginia Late Fee Laws (verified July 9, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/late-fees/virginia/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Virginia statute in the citations section below.

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

Notes and caveats

It is the lesser of two 10% figures, not '10% of rent' — The cap is the lesser of 10% of the periodic rent or 10% of the remaining balance due and owed (§ 55.1-1204(E)), and the remaining-balance prong routinely produces the smaller number after a partial payment. '10% of monthly rent' is the standard misstatement.
No grace period is recorded, and that is deliberate — The rent-due-on-the-first, late-after-the-fifth rule belongs to the § 55.1-1204(C) default terms for tenancies where no written rental agreement was offered — not to written leases, which carry no statutory grace period.
Bad-check fees are capped separately — Processing fees for a returned check are capped at $50 under the § 55.1-1200 definition.
Coming July 1, 2027 (HB 95) — Landlords with 4+ units must offer payment plans for unpaid rent, with no additional late fees accruing while the tenant complies. The change is flagged as pending and is not built into the figures here.

Common questions: Virginia 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 Virginia?: The lesser of 10% of the periodic rent or 10% of the remaining balance due and owed by the tenant (§ 55.1-1204(E)). The hard cap displaces any general reasonableness test. No late charge may be imposed at all unless the WRITTEN rental agreement provides for it, and no charge may exceed the lesser of 10% of the periodic rent or 10% of the remaining balance owed.
Is there a grace period before rent is late in Virginia?: None mandated statewide.
Does a late fee have to be written into the lease in Virginia?: Yes — in Virginia a late fee must be stated in the lease.
Can a landlord charge a daily late fee in Virginia?: No structure is specified; any fee arrangement must stay within the lesser-of-10% cap, which as a per-period ceiling forecloses meaningful daily accrual.

Changes since last full verification

The Verified date above (July 9, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official state sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).

Correction, August 12, 2026 — The HB 95 (2026 c. 1105) payment-plan overlay takes effect July 1, 2027, not January 1, 2027, and is not currently in force; the eviction page previously described it as in force. The same page's version note now records that 2026 c. 635's authorization for a legal-resource insert on the unlawful-detainer summons has been in force since July 1, 2026.

Statute citations

Va. Code § 55.1-1204 (C), (E) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Virginia Code site (law.lis.virginia.gov): §§ 55.1-1226, 55.1-1204 (both the current version and the 'Effective July 1, 2027' version), 55.1-1253, and 55.1-1229 each read in full twice (independent reads matched verbatim); §§ 55.1-1200 (definitions), 55.1-1201 (applicability/supersession), 55.1-1203, 55.1-1206, 55.1-1208, and 55.1-1210 read in full once. 2026 session laws (cc. 722/723, 1050, 1066, and the HB 15/SB 48 and HB 95 changes) identified via official code version labels and section history lines, cross-checked against practitioner summaries; 2026 HB 278/SB 355 status (continued to 2027) checked 2026-07-09. 2024 Acts of Assembly c. 46 (HB 701) read in full on legacylis.virginia.gov 2026-07-09 and its added language confirmed against the current § 55.1-1229 text, confirming the earlier reading.