Landlord Atlas

What late fees can a landlord charge in Oregon?

Verified July 9, 2026 All Oregon topics →

Oregon gives tenants a statutory four-day grace period: a landlord may not charge a late fee unless rent is still unpaid after the fourth day of the rental period, and the fee must be spelled out in a written rental agreement.

The fee itself must fit one of exactly three statutory molds — a reasonable flat charge (measured against what local landlords customarily charge) imposed once per period, a daily charge starting on day five capped at 6% of that flat amount per day, or 5% of the rent charged once per five-day block the rent stays delinquent. Landlords cannot pull an old late fee out of the next month's rent payment and then treat the rent as short, and unpaid late charges can only accrue simple interest at the state judgment rate. There is no fixed dollar cap, but a fee outside the three permitted structures is simply not collectible under ORS 90.260.

Oregon late fees at a glance

Statutory cap Three exclusive structures (ORS 90.260(2)): (a) a reasonable flat amount charged once per rental period, 'reasonable' meaning the customary amount charged by landlords for that rental market; (b) a reasonable per-day charge beginning on the fifth day of the rental period, capped at 6% of the paragraph-(a) flat amount per day; or (c) 5% of the periodic rent payment, charged once for each succeeding five-day period (or portion) the rent remains delinquent.
Mandatory grace period 4 days
Must be in the lease Yes
Daily fees Yes — one of the three statutory structures: a reasonable per-day charge may begin on the fifth day of the rental period for which rent is delinquent, but each day's charge may not exceed 6% of the reasonable flat fee described in ORS 90.260(2)(a).
Reasonableness standard For the flat-fee option, 'reasonable amount' is statutorily defined as the customary amount charged by landlords for that rental market (ORS 90.260(2)(a)) — a market-comparison test, not open-ended.

Notes and caveats

grace_period_days encoded as 4 from the verbatim trigger 'the rent payment is not received by the fourth day of the weekly or monthly rental period' (ORS 90.260(1)(b)) — i.e., a charge is possible from day 5. The three structures are exclusive; there is no fourth 'whatever the lease says' option (ORS 90.302 bars fees except as provided). Written-agreement requirement covers the obligation, the type and amount of the charge, and the due date (90.260(1)(a), (c)). Anti-offset rule verified: a landlord 'may not deduct a previously imposed late charge from a current or subsequent rental period rent payment' — important because it blocks converting fee disputes into nonpayment evictions. Interest: simple interest per ORS 82.010 judgment rate. Both hosts read; numbers (fourth day, 6%, 5%) match. HB 2134 (2025, eff. 2026-01-01) touches ORS 90.427 lease-break fees — adjacent, not a late-fee change. Nothing in the 2026 short session touched 90.260.

Statute citations

How this record was verified: Dual-host reads of statute text: official Oregon Legislature ORS chapter pages (oregonlegislature.gov ors090.html and ors091.html) plus the oregon.public.law mirror (current through the 2023 ORS edition and 2024 session), with verbatim re-reads of ORS 90.323(2)-(6) and 90.324(1)-(2). Every load-bearing number (31-day deposit return, 2x penalty, 4th-day late-fee grace, 6%/day and 5%/5-day fee caps, 24 hours' actual notice, 90-day increase notice, first-year bar, once-per-12-months limit, 15-year exemption, 3-months-rent penalty, lesser-of-10%-or-7%+CPI formula) was read on both hosts. The annually-published cap figure was verified on the official DAS Office of Economic Analysis rent-stabilization page (fetched twice with different prompts) and cross-confirmed against the DAS newsroom press releases of 2025-09-30 and the 2025-10-01 correction: 9.5% for calendar 2026 (CPI-U West Region September 12-month average of 2.5%). 2026 short-session sweep via the Oregon Real Estate Agency's official 2026 Legislative Update: SB 1523, HB 4120, HB 4123 all enacted, none changes a v1 field.