I live in California (Bakersfield, Kern County if it matters). I had rent due by the 3rd to avoid a late fee, and this month, the second was a Saturday. Both the posted office hours, and the hours stamped onto my "late fee notice" state that Saturday, the office is open 10am-4pm. However, the office was NOT open Saturday, at any hours. The apartment has a very unsecure drop box (I could literally get this thing of the wall in less than a minute with a simple monkey wrench), and according to MANY local news broadcasts/online reports, money is stolen too frequently for me to trust my rent in an unsecured drop box.

According to this (http://thslawfirm.com/media/documents/4181556ec7.pdf), I have no protection if my rent is ever stolen from the box as it being paid on-time since, if the box was ever broken into, there never is any proof that I had put mine in there in the first place, and thus I could still be charged a late fee.

My question is, if a rental office fails to remain open during posted and advertised business hours, and thus my rent is made "late", can I still be charged a late fee? (Also, if it matters, I talked to the landlord, and she told me (with a stack of late fees in her hand) that anything in the drop box when she opens Monday morning, the 4th, as in everything dropped in it on the weekend before a late fee would be incurred, would still be considered late.)

Is there any legal ruling either way, for specifically rental properties or just businesses failing to be open during posted hours?

You pay your rent with cash? Why not pay, through the box, by check?

If you can prove that the office wasn't open when they said it would be, and that you attempted to pay on time, they cannot charge you a late fee.

I had rent due by the 3rd to avoid a late fee

This means to me that rent is due on the first, but you have a 3 day grace period. That grace period is probably calendar days, not business days. So it is up to you to make sure that rent is received on time.

As AK noted, you should pay by check or money order so you can place it in the drop box if necessary.

Thanks for the help.

I do pay by check, but we have to make checks payable to the name of the apartment complex, which is named after the region of town it is in. There are over 100 different businesses who could cash the check.

But as AK said, I can prove they weren't open. My roommate sent me a timestamped photo of the office door with posted times and a "closed" sign when they were scheduled open when she tried to bring the check in for me on Saturday.

A local lawyer advised me that since there is no drop box clause in my lease and I have that photo that they not only cannot charge me a late fee, but that a late fee I paid months ago was illegal for the same reason.

Thanks for the replies. =)

"A local lawyer advised me that since there is no drop box clause in my lease and I have that photo that they not only cannot charge me a late fee, but that a late fee I paid months ago was illegal for the same reason." did you pay him for this information? I'd hire him and tell him to write the owner a letter informing him of the situation and if it is not resolved you will consider a small claims suit seeking treble damages.

Most leases do not have a drop box clause, and as such, the drop box is merely for the benefit to make it easier to pay the rent.

The payment has to be made to the complex ( landlord) before the due date, in fact it is suppose to be there by the 1st. Not the 3rd, the 3rd is only a grace period.
Had it been paid on the 30th, before the 1st it would not be late.

Thus easy to solve any future issue, always pay before the 1st, and it is never late. Playing around with and waiting for the last day will almost always cause some late fees.

So this is very easy, if the payment was not in the hands of the landlord by the 3rd, it is late.

I do pay by check, but we have to make checks payable to the name of the apartment complex, which is named after the region of town it is in. There are over 100 different businesses who could cash the check.


Sorry that doesn't fly. You make the check out and on the memo put for Jan rent on apt 1B

As for the late fee being illegal. Don't pay it and, when you move out let them sue you for it.

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I do pay by check, but we have to make checks payable to the name of the apartment complex, which is named after the region of town it is in. There are over 100 different businesses who could cash the check....

Pay to "Northside Apartments, 123 Easy Street"

Memo: "for Jan rent on apt 1B" (borrowing ScottGem's example).

And, for that matter, how many of those "100 different businesses" make a habit of stealing from someone else's dropbox?

For some reason, OP is not playing with a full deck.

I tried to fight a late tuition payment once. It was due September 31, and I brought it in on October 1, claiming that it was the equivalent of 9/31.
No one was amused. People don't like to be shown up. I was young then...