Delaware Late Fee Calculator
Your late fee
$62.50
At the legal limit
Paid 12 days late, after the 5-day grace period.
The lease asks for $62.50, exactly the most 25 Del. C. § 5501(d) permits on these figures.
- Days past due
- 12 days
- Grace period ends
- October 3, 2026
- Earliest fee date
- October 4, 2026
- Lease late fee
- 5% of $1,250.00 = $62.50
- Legal maximum
- $62.50
- Rent + late fee
- $1,312.50
Limit set by Delaware (5% of the monthly rent): $62.50
5% × $1,250.00 monthly rent = $62.50
Delaware, earliest legal fee date: October 4, 2026
Next step: turn these figures into a late rent notice for the tenant.
Delaware rent late fee law
Delaware: a late charge written into the rental agreement is limited to 5% of the monthly rent and cannot be imposed during the first 5 days after rent is due; a landlord with no office or other permanent place for payments in the county gets the due date pushed 3 days later.
(d) Where the rental agreement provides for a late charge payable to the landlord for rent not paid at the agreed time, such late charge shall not exceed 5 percent of the monthly rent. A late charge is considered as additional rent for the purposes of this Code. The late charge shall not be imposed within 5 days of the agreed time for payment of rent. The landlord shall, in the county in which the rental unit is located, maintain an office or other permanent place for receipt of payments, where rent may be timely paid. Failure to maintain such an office, or other permanent place of payment where rent may be timely paid, shall extend the agreed on time for payment of rent by 3 days beyond the due date.
Late rent notice builder
Before you send it: this builds a reminder letter about overdue rent and a late charge. It is not an eviction notice. A notice to pay rent or quit is a separate document, and Delaware has its own rules for it. Nothing on this page is legal advice.
[Your name or company]
Date: October 10, 2026
To: [Tenant name]
[Rental property address]
Re: Overdue rent for [Rental property address]
Dear [Tenant name],
This letter is a reminder that the rent of $1,250.00 for [Rental property address] was due on September 28, 2026. As of October 10, 2026, $1,250.00 of it is still unpaid (12 days past due).
Your lease provides for a late charge, which comes to $62.50.
Amount now due
- Unpaid rent
- $1,250.00
- Late charge
- $62.50
- Total
- $1,312.50
Please pay $1,312.50 at your earliest opportunity.
If this letter crossed with your payment, please disregard it.
Regards,
[Your name or company]
How to use the Delaware rent late fee calculator
- Enter the monthly rent and the rent that is overdue.
- Enter the date the rent was due and the date it was paid, or today if it is still unpaid.
- Choose how the lease sets the late fee (percent of rent, flat amount or dollars per day) and type the figure from the lease.
- Enter the grace days written in the lease.
- Read the late fee, the earliest fee date and the most 25 Del. C. § 5501(d) allows, then copy the figures or print a late rent notice.
Work out interest on an overdue B2B invoice under Delaware law. When the contract is silent, the default is variable — the currently published figure, the official page that sets it, the written-contract cap, and the statute are all on this page.
Fed discount rate +5 pts, fixed as of when interest became due; simple interest on invoice debts.
Late fee breakdown
- Interest owed
- —
- Daily rate
- —
- Total (invoice + interest)
- —
Still unpaid? Generate a formal demand letter — it computes the interest and cites Delaware's statute (6 Del. C. §§ 2301, 2306) for you.
What Delaware law says about invoice interest
Any lender may charge and collect from a borrower interest at any rate agreed upon in writing not in excess of 5% over the Federal Reserve discount rate including any surcharge thereon. Where there is no expressed contract rate, the legal rate of interest shall be 5% over the Federal Reserve discount rate [...] as of the time from which interest is due
Quoted verbatim from the linked official source — not our paraphrase. How we source and re-check every row is documented in the data methodology.
Maximum late fee in Delaware — written B2B contracts
No statutory cap
6 Del. C. § 2306 bars any corporation, limited partnership, statutory trust, business trust or LLC from interposing the defense of usury in any action, so an entity debtor has no usury argument to make. Separately, § 2301(c) removes any rate limitation where the amount loaned or used exceeds $100,000 and repayment is not secured by a mortgage against a borrower's principal residence — that exemption turns on amount and collateral only, not on entity type. Note that § 2306's list does not name individuals or general partnerships; the section itself contrasts entities having 'powers and privileges of corporations not possessed by individuals or partnerships', so a sole-proprietor customer is not covered by that bar.
Basis: 6 Del. C. §§ 2301(c), 2306. Compare all 51 jurisdictions in the maximum late fee by state table and cap-regime map.
Rent and invoices follow different laws — consumer debt is not covered
The Invoice tab, the rate card and the statute sections on this page are about business-to-business invoices. Residential rent late fees live in Delaware's landlord-tenant law. On the Rent tab, 25 Del. C. § 5501(d) is checked against your lease figures and quoted in full. Consumer credit has separate, stricter rules. The distinction is explained in B2B invoice late fees vs. residential rent.
Use this data
Delaware's row — rate, cap, citation, verbatim quote, verification date — is part of our open 51-jurisdiction dataset: CSV · JSON (CC BY 4.0, cite myinvoicetemplate.com). Set late-fee terms on your next invoice with the free invoice generator, or state them clearly using the wording guidance in the payment terms guide.
Delaware late fee FAQ
Is there a legal limit on rent late fees in Delaware?
Delaware: a late charge written into the rental agreement is limited to 5% of the monthly rent and cannot be imposed during the first 5 days after rent is due; a landlord with no office or other permanent place for payments in the county gets the due date pushed 3 days later. Source: 25 Del. C. § 5501(d), checked 2026-10-03; the Rent tab quotes it word for word.
When can a landlord charge a late fee in Delaware?
Not before day 6 after the rent was due (25 Del. C. § 5501(d)). Enter the due date and the lease's grace days in the calculator to get the earliest date a fee may be charged.
How do I work out a late fee on rent in Delaware?
Enter the monthly rent, the overdue amount, the date the rent was due and the date it was paid, then the late fee in the lease (a percent of rent, a flat amount or dollars per day) and its grace days. The calculator gives the late fee, the earliest fee date, the most 25 Del. C. § 5501(d) allows and rent plus fee, and turns them into a late rent notice.
Can I charge late fees on overdue invoices in Delaware?
Yes — on business-to-business invoices. If your contract or invoice states a late-fee rate, that rate governs (subject to the cap rules below). If nothing was agreed: Variable; currently published figure: 9.00% (since Sep 17, 2026). Fed discount rate +5 pts, fixed as of when interest became due; simple interest on invoice debts. Statute: 6 Del. C. §§ 2301, 2306, verified 2026-10-01. Consumer and rent debts follow separate laws.
What is the maximum late fee on a B2B invoice in Delaware?
For a written B2B contract: Business entities cannot plead usury at all (§ 2306 bars any corporation, LLC, LP, statutory trust or business trust from interposing the defense), and loans over $100,000 not secured by a mortgage on a principal residence are expressly uncapped (§ 2301(c)); the discount rate +5 pts written ceiling in § 2301(a) reaches only deals outside those two carve-outs. Basis: 6 Del. C. §§ 2301(c), 2306. The full cap analysis is on the Invoice (B2B) tab; this covers business-to-business deals only — consumer credit has stricter separate caps.
What interest applies if my contract doesn't mention late fees in Delaware?
Variable — Fed discount rate +5 pts, fixed as of when interest became due; simple interest on invoice debts. Currently published figure: 9.00% (since Sep 17, 2026). Confirm the applicable figure via the official page linked on this page before relying on it. Statute: 6 Del. C. §§ 2301, 2306.
Where does this data come from, and when was it verified?
Every invoice-interest figure on this page comes from our 51-jurisdiction dataset: each row researched against the controlling statute or the state's official current-rate page, independently re-checked, and stamped with its own verification date — Delaware's row was last verified 2026-10-01. The operative legal text is quoted verbatim on this page with a link to the official source, the methodology is public, every verification pass is logged in the changelog, and the full dataset is downloadable (CC BY 4.0). For rent, the Rent tab quotes 25 Del. C. § 5501(d) word for word, links its source and gives the date it was checked (2026-10-03).
Not legal advice. This page summarizes 25 Del. C. § 5501(d) and Delaware's commercial-interest statute for general information, with the verification date shown above — it tells you when we last confirmed the figures, not that they are still current today. Statutes change and courts interpret them; verify the cited statute at the official source, or ask a licensed attorney in your state, before charging a late fee or demanding interest.