[tenant1]

By law does the landlord have the right to accumulate late rent fees over the past few years and request it in full at the end of tenancy? They did not provide any notice to tenant and have been continuily accepting the monthly rent payments and have not requested late rent fees throughout. Thanks.

[smoothy]

Not completely certain... but if that money was owed and not paid, they can eventually call it due. They also had an option of serving you with a 3 day pay or quit notice... where you have three days to pay it all or eviction proceedings start and they sue you for moneys owed and court costs. So they were being far nicer you than I would be.

But we need to know what city and state you live because landlord/Tenant laws vary widely and what is true in one state may not be in another.

But just pay it... you owe it, you know you owe it, save the problems and the obvious bad reference you will get from them if you fight it. And the difference between a good and bad reference from you last landlord can be the difference between getting a nice place... or having to live in a place with an open air drug market and postitution pickup point outside your door at night, where you find used condoms and use needles outside your door. And THAT you should think about.

[tenant1]

Thank you for your quick response could you possibly provide an email address, there are additional information I would like to provide and want to hear what you think about it. I've been trying to do research online but I don't seem to find the info. Thanks!

[joypulv]

Are you sure it isn't in the lease somewhere? They often have such provisions.
But your state law might have a definition of what is 'late' that overrides what is in a lease.

[smoothy]

I'm not an all knowing expert... plus we want to keep the answers where people can see them when they search otherwise you lose the benefit of others who have been there before if it goes offline. Just leave out specific adresses, names etc... we don't need to know what street or apartment you live at or the landlords name... City, States and pertinant info omitting the identifying stuff is fine.

[tenant1]

Lease agreement does mention the late rent fee however the one year lease agreement was signed years ago and has been a month to month rental since. The late payments occurred more than a year ago and landlord didn't provide any notice of late rent fee accumulating and have been accepting the monthly rent all along. Hawaii. So my question is if the landlord could charge the accumulated late rent fee at the end of the tenancy, even though no notice have been provided nor did any pay or quit notice provided. Thanks for all your help.