Five tenant law claims that are wrong
We build demand letters, which means every deadline, cap and penalty we cite has to be read from the statute rather than from someone's summary of it. Doing that across 158 state-by-state readings turned up a set of statements that are repeated widely and are simply not what the law says.
Why these go wrong
Almost none of it is carelessness. Legislatures amend statutes quietly, a cap gets added to a subsection nobody re-reads, a threshold is frozen by deleting four words, or a figure from an adjacent statute gets attached to the wrong tenancy. A summary that was correct when written stays online long after it stopped being true.
We are not naming anyone, because the useful thing here is the correction and the statute behind it — not who repeated what.
Correction 1
“Washington caps residential late fees at $75 per month.”
There is no late-fee cap for ordinary residential tenancies in Washington.
The $75 is real Washington law, and it is in the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act — but it is not a cap on your monthly late fee. It comes from RCW 59.18.410, the eviction-judgment section, which twice limits "late fees if such fees are due under the lease and do not exceed $75 in total." That is an aggregate ceiling inside a single unlawful detainer case: it caps the late fees a court may fold into the judgment against you, and the late-fee portion of what you must pay to be restored to your tenancy. It says nothing about what a landlord may bill you month to month. For ordinary monthly late fees, Washington sets no dollar limit at all — RCW 59.18.170 contains no dollar amount, no percentage, and no maximum, and still carries the history line [2020 c 177 s 1; 1973 1st ex.s. c 207 s 17]. The 2025 housing law (Engrossed House Bill 1217, Chapter 209) did not change that. Its only late-fee cap is a tiered 2, 3, then 5 percent of monthly rent, and it sits in Part II, which amends the manufactured/mobile home act at RCW 59.20.060(2)(j). Part I, the residential half, has no late-fee provision at all — a 1.5 percent residential cap appeared in the introduced and substitute versions of the bill and was removed by amendment before final passage. The dollar figure $75 appears nowhere in EHB 1217, in any version. What Washington does have for apartments and houses is a five-day grace period: a landlord may not charge a late fee on rent paid within five days of its due date. Note the trap on the sixth day — once rent is more than five days past due, fees may be charged "commencing from the first day after the due date," not from day six.
RCW 59.18.170(2); RCW 59.18.410(1)-(2); 2025 c 209 s 205 — read RCW 59.18.170 · Washington rent late fee laws
Correction 2
“Tennessee's landlord-tenant act covers counties with more than 75,000 people.”
It covers counties that passed 75,000 in the 2010 census — and no others, ever.
The population threshold is real, but it is frozen. Public Chapter 182 of 2021 amended the act by deleting the words "or any subsequent federal census." Coverage is now permanently fixed to the 2010 count. The practical consequence: a county that has grown past 75,000 since 2010 — Putnam County, for one — is still not covered, and never will be under the current statute. Anyone reading today's population figures against the threshold will reach the wrong answer.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-28-102(a); Pub. Ch. 182 (2021) — read Public Chapter 182
Correction 3
“Utah has no cap on late fees.”
Utah has capped them since 2021, at the greater of 10% of the rent or $75.
Utah Code § 57-22-4(5) has capped residential late fees since it was amended in the 2021 General Session. There is a genuine wrinkle that may explain the confusion: subsection (9) bars a renter from using a violation of that subsection as the basis for a cause of action. So the cap is a real legal limit that a tenant cannot sue over — it works as a ceiling and a defense, not as a damages claim. "No cap" and "a cap you can't sue on" are very different things.
Utah Code § 57-22-4(5), (9) — read Utah Code § 57-22-4 · Utah rent late fee laws
Correction 4
“Connecticut does not limit late charges.”
Connecticut capped them in 2023, at the lesser of $5/day (max $50) or 5%.
Public Act 23-207 added subsection (b) to Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47a-15a, effective October 2023. It caps a late charge at the lesser of five dollars per day up to fifty dollars, or five percent of the delinquent rent payment, and permits only one charge per delinquent payment no matter how long it stays unpaid. The related prohibition is easy to miss: a lease may not require a late charge before the nine-day grace period expires, and it may not dress the charge up as a discount forfeited for paying late.
Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 47a-15a(b), 47a-4(a)(8) — read Chapter 830 · Connecticut rent late fee laws
Correction 5
“New Mexico caps late fees at 10% of the rent.”
It was cut to 5% in June 2025, and may be charged on rent only.
Senate Bill 267 amended NMSA 1978 § 47-8-15(D), taking effect June 20, 2025. The cap is now five percent of the rent for each rental period in default. The bill also narrowed what the fee may be calculated on — rent only, never deposits, other fees or utilities — and imposed a hard notice deadline: the landlord must give notice of the late fee no later than the last day of the next rental period, or it cannot be assessed at all.
NMSA 1978 § 47-8-15(D); 2025 SB 267 — read Senate Bill 267 · New Mexico rent late fee laws
How we check
Every figure we publish is read from the legislature's own text — the statute, the enrolled session law, or the administrative code. Commercial legal-information sites are used only to locate a provision, never as authority for it, and an automated check fails our build if any jurisdiction we serve cites a secondary source. The verified figures are pinned by regression tests so a later edit can't quietly change a deadline or a penalty.
Deposit data last verified September 1, 2026; repair data August 11, 2026; late-fee data August 14, 2026.
Corrections to this page are welcome — if we have something wrong, we want to know. General information, not legal advice. We are not a law firm.