Landlord Atlas

What late fees can a landlord charge in North Carolina?

Verified July 8, 2026 All North Carolina topics →

North Carolina caps residential late fees at the greater of $15 or 5% of the monthly rent (for weekly rentals, the greater of $4 or 5% of weekly rent), and no fee may be charged unless the payment is five or more days late — a statutory grace period.

The fee must be agreed to in the rental agreement, only one fee may be imposed per late payment, and it cannot be skimmed from the next month's rent to create a fresh default. For HUD-, USDA-, state-, or locally-subsidized tenancies the percentage is calculated on the tenant's share of rent only, and no late fee may be charged on unpaid water or sewer charges. Separate from late fees, the statute authorizes a menu of eviction-related administrative fees — complaint-filing (greater of $15 or 5%), court-appearance (10% of monthly rent), and second-trial (up to 12%) — of which a landlord may keep only one per ejectment case, plus actual out-of-pocket court costs and lease-based attorney's fees capped at 15%.

North Carolina late fees at a glance

Statutory cap $15 or 5% of the monthly rent, whichever is greater (monthly rent); $4 or 5% of the weekly rent, whichever is greater (weekly rent)
Mandatory grace period 5 days
Must be in the lease Yes
Daily fees Effectively prohibited: G.S. 42-46(b) allows a late fee to be imposed only one time for each late rental payment, and the fee may not be deducted from a subsequent rent payment so as to manufacture a new default.
Reasonableness standard Not addressed by statute

Notes and caveats

The 42-46(e)-(g) eviction fee schedule is a North Carolina peculiarity that landlords frequently stack unlawfully — subsection (h) limits them to one of the three per case, and prohibits deducting the fee from later rent. Subsection (i) (out-of-pocket expenses and litigation costs, including the 15% attorney-fee cap) was amended by SL 2025-52 effective 2025-10-01; the cited current text reflects that amendment. Pending bill H990 (written pre-collection notice) is flagged above, not incorporated — and is misreported as effective law by at least one secondary source.

Statute citations

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official North Carolina General Assembly site (ncleg.gov / ncleg.net): Tenant Security Deposit Act Article 6 (G.S. 42-50 through 42-56) full article text, G.S. 42-46 (full current text including the SL 2025-52 rewrite of subsection (i)), G.S. 42-14, and G.S. 42-14.1 (operative sentence confirmed in the official Article 1 text). H990 (2025) status verified via LegiScan against the ncleg bill record.