Oregon Statutes 90.260 – Late rent payment charge or fee; restrictions; calculation
(1) A landlord may impose a late charge or fee, however designated, only if:
Terms Used In Oregon Statutes 90.260
- Fee: means a nonrefundable payment of money. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
- Landlord: includes a person who is authorized by the owner, lessor or sublessor to manage the premises or to enter into a rental agreement. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- Rent: means any payment to be made to the landlord under the rental agreement, periodic or otherwise, in exchange for the right of a tenant and any permitted pet to occupy a dwelling unit to the exclusion of others and to use the premises. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
- Rental agreement: includes a lease. See Oregon Statutes 90.100
(a) The rent payment is not received by the fourth day of the weekly or monthly rental period for which rent is payable; and
(b) There exists a written rental agreement that specifies:
(A) The tenant’s obligation to pay a late charge on delinquent rent payments;
(B) The type and amount of the late charge, as described in subsection (2) of this section; and
(C) The date on which rent payments are due and the date or day on which late charges become due.
(2) The amount of any late charge may not exceed:
(a) A reasonable flat amount, charged once per rental period. ‘Reasonable amount’ means the customary amount charged by landlords for that rental market;
(b) A reasonable amount, charged on a per-day basis, beginning on the fifth day of the rental period for which rent is delinquent. This daily charge may accrue every day thereafter until the rent, not including any late charge, is paid in full, through that rental period only. The per-day charge may not exceed six percent of the amount described in paragraph (a) of this subsection; or
(c) Five percent of the periodic rent payment amount, charged once for each succeeding five-day period, or portion thereof, for which the rent payment is delinquent, beginning on the fifth day of that rental period and continuing and accumulating until that rent payment, not including any late charge, is paid in full, through that rental period only.
(3) In periodic tenancies, a landlord may change the type or amount of late charge by giving 30 days’ written notice to the tenant.
(4) A landlord may not deduct a previously imposed late charge from a current or subsequent rental period rent payment, thereby making that rent payment delinquent for imposition of a new or additional late charge or for termination of the tenancy for nonpayment under ORS § 90.394.
(5) A landlord may charge simple interest on an unpaid late charge at the rate allowed for judgments pursuant to ORS § 82.010 (2) and accruing from the date the late charge is imposed.
(6) Nonpayment of a late charge alone is not grounds for termination of a rental agreement for nonpayment of rent under ORS § 90.394, but is grounds for termination of a rental agreement for cause under ORS § 90.392 or 90.630 (1). A landlord may note the imposition of a late charge on a nonpayment of rent termination notice under ORS § 90.394, so long as the notice states or otherwise makes clear that the tenant may cure the nonpayment notice by paying only the delinquent rent, not including any late charge, within the allotted time.
(7) A late charge includes an increase or decrease in the regularly charged periodic rent payment imposed because a tenant does or does not pay that rent by a certain date. [1989 c.506 § 15; 1995 c.559 § 8; 1997 c.249 § 30; 1997 c.577 § 9a; 1999 c.603 § 12; 2005 c.391 § 16; 2007 c.906 § 32a]