Automatic late fees allow you to charge tenants when rent is overdue—without manual follow-up. Once enabled, TurboTenant will automatically apply the fee and notify your tenant.
Before You Start
Automatic late fees are only available for monthly rent charges
This feature does not apply to:
One-time charges
Utilities or other charge types
Your late fee settings should align with your lease agreement and local laws
Set Up Automatic Late Fees
Navigate to the Lease Profiles tab and select the lease you want to update
Click Payments
Locate the monthly rent charge, or click Create Charge if rent hasn’t been set up yet
Click the pencil icon next to the charge (or complete the Create Charge flow)
Scroll to “Would you like to create automatic late fees?”
Select the check boxes next to either or both:
One-time initial fee
Daily late fees
Customize Your Late Fee Settings
You can create one-time fees, daily fees, or both, depending on how you want to handle late payments.
One-Time Initial Fee
Best for a simple, upfront penalty.
Choose:
Flat fee (e.g., $50)
% of rent or unpaid amount (e.g., 5%)
Set when it applies (1–31 days after rent is due)
Applies once per late payment.
Daily Late Fees
Best for encouraging faster payment.
Set a daily amount (e.g., $10/day)
Choose when it starts (e.g., 2+ days after rent is due)
Accrues each day until paid.
Using both fee types?
Daily fees begin after the one-time fee is applied.
Example: If your one-time fee is applied on day 3, daily fees typically start on day 4.
Optional: Set a Late Fee Limit
If you select Yes, you can:
Stop daily fees after a set number of days (1–30 days)
Cap total late fees by:
Flat amount (e.g., $200 max)
Percentage of rent
What Happens Next?
Late fees are automatically applied when rent is overdue
Tenants are notified
You can track everything in the Payments tab
Important: When Late Fees Are Applied
Late fees are applied based on how many days the payment is past due, not on the due date itself.
For example:
If rent is due on the 1st
And you set a late fee for 5 days after rent is due
The late fee will be applied on the 6th
If you don’t see the late fee option, make sure the charge is set as a monthly rent charge - this is the most common issue.
When Daily Late Fees Take Effect
If you add a daily late fee after the monthly rent charge has already been deployed, the rent charge's due date must still be in the future for the daily late fee to apply during the current month.
If the rent charge is already past due when you add the daily late fee, the daily late fee will not be applied to that month's charge. Instead, it will begin applying to the next month's rent charge.
Example:
Rent is due on the 1st.
On the 5th, you enable a daily late fee.
Because the current month's rent charge is already past due, the daily late fee will not be added for that month.
The daily late fee will begin applying automatically to the next month's rent charge.
Tip: To ensure daily late fees apply for the current month, enable them before the rent charge's due date.
Deleting a Late Fee Charge
If a late fee has been generated and is unpaid, you can delete it like any other charge.
This is useful if:
You’ve waived the fee as a courtesy
The tenant paid offline and hasn’t been marked as paid yet
Remove Automatic Late Fees (For Future Charges)
If you want to stop applying late fees to all future rent charges, you can update the charge settings at any time.
Steps:
Navigate to Lease Profiles and select the lease
Click Payments
Locate the monthly rent charge and click the pencil icon
Scroll to “Would you like to create automatic late fees?”
Uncheck:
One-time initial fee
Daily late fees
Click Save
What This Means
Automatic late fees will no longer be applied to future charges
Any existing late fees that have already been created will not be removed automatically
Deleting Late Fees that have already been sent:
Important
Automatic late fees are separate from your lease agreement.
If you want to define late fees in your lease:
Use the Provisions section to add custom terms if you're building your lease agreement or use an addendum to amend the original lease agreement.
Clearly state the fee structure
Make sure it complies with local landlord-tenant laws