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I built a small tool to clarify how much late fee a landlord can legally charge (and when) in each U.S. state. Rent laws vary widely: some states set a fixed d

I built a small tool to clarify how much late fee a landlord can legally charge (and when) in each U.S. state. Rent laws vary widely: some states set a fixed dollar cap, others a percentage, and a few use only “reasonable” language that’s open to interpretation. Many renters and landlords have no easy way to check what’s actually allowed without reading the statutes themselves. This project compiles those laws into an instant calculator. Enter rent amount, due date, payment date, and state — it shows the lawful late fee limit, grace period rules, and citation. It started as a curiosity after seeing conflicting answers online. The goal is transparency, not advocacy; all data is drawn from current state statutes. The app is lightweight, built in Replit, and runs entirely client-side. I’d be interested in feedback on legal interpretation consistency, data sourcing, or UI clarity.

candiddevmike 1y ago
I thought this would be for tenants, but this seems more geared towards landlords. Most landlords have some kind of SaaS platform that will automate all of this for them as part of rent collection, I don't think you'll get many bites on this TBH. I'd love to see some kind of 50 state tenant resource center, geared towards providing tenants with advice and legal resources.
- hrgdevBuilds 1y ago
  [dead]
axus 1y ago
I love the ambiguity in who the tool is for. For renters, learning about their rights and fighting illegal fees. For landlords, charging the maximum amount permitted under the law.
- limagnolia 1y ago
  Or landlords who want to follow the law, but aren't sure what it is, trying to make sure they are doing things right.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 1y ago
    Here on Long Island (NY), most apartments are illegal (addition/remodeled single-family homes). Many of them make you sign a lease, anyway, but they can get dismissed by any law student. Every now and then, some municipality claims that it will be "fighting illegal apartments," but they die quick deaths. If they got serious about it, the homeless population would explode, and a lot of folks would leave the state. Also, I believe that most of the rules that apply to apartments, come from municipalities, not states.
    - gruez 1y ago
      >Here on Long Island (NY), most apartments are illegal (addition/remodeled single-family homes). Many of them make you sign a lease, anyway, but they can get dismissed by any law student. What does this mean in practice? Courts won't enforce late fees or unpaid rents? Landlords can't evict bad tenants? Renters can terminate leases without any penalty?
      - ChrisMarshallNY 1y ago
        Pretty much. Landlords get in a lot of trouble, for renting illegal apartments. I have friends that rented apartments, and had Pacific Heights-type[0] problem tenants. The COVID era was a horror. Many tenants just stopped paying rent entirely. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Heights_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Heights_(film)
        pixelatedindex 1y ago
        > Landlords get in a lot of trouble, for renting illegal apartments. Do you have a source for this because I’m not convinced. Maybe a small portion do but the majority face no penalties. When I was in college the number of questionably legal homes for rent was insane, but I didn’t have time to go after them. A friend of mine did and won, but it required a lot of time. Most of the time the landlord does what they want and the renters don’t have the resources to go after them. You make it sound like it’s the renters who take advantage of the landlords but most of the time it’s the landlords who do whatever they want. The ones who stopped paying rent probably were doing so legally because a lot of them were forced to not work.
- Fraterkes 1y ago
  If you look at the other tools on the page, there's stuff for property-management and sending rent-reminders. I guess they know what part of their userbase is the most moneyed.
- terminalshort 1y ago
  It's a tool, and like any tool it should be as neutral as possible.
limagnolia 1y ago
Utah appears to be calculating incorrectly, the text says "10% of rent or $75, whichever is GREATER." But it is doing the opposite, showing the lessor of 10% or $75.
- limagnolia 1y ago
  New Hampshire has the same bug.
  - corndoge 1y ago
    Other states do as well.
    - gruez 1y ago
      Given that OP said it was "built in Replit"[1], I'm tempted to believe AI misgenerated the underlying calculation code. [1] Replit bills itself as "an AI-powered platform for building professional web apps and websites."
      - zahlman 1y ago
        I always thought Replit was supposed to be a pastebin site with built-in sandboxed code execution, so people could demo Python snippets and what-not. What happened?
        Scoundreller 1y ago
        Vibe-coding webapps raise more money
        gruez 1y ago
        see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45486035 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45486035 tl;dr: they pivoted from offering services adjacent to "learn to code" (among other things) to vibecoding
    - deleted 1y ago
vjekm 1y ago
[flagged]
- gruez 1y ago
  Most people aren't lawyers and therefore won't know what statues to read, so they'll need to search/ask AI, which is pretty much what this site does.

candiddevmike 1y ago

I thought this would be for tenants, but this seems more geared towards landlords. Most landlords have some kind of SaaS platform that will automate all of this for them as part of rent collection, I don't think you'll get many bites on this TBH. I'd love to see some kind of 50 state tenant resource center, geared towards providing tenants with advice and legal resources.

hrgdevBuilds 1y ago
[dead]

axus 1y ago

I love the ambiguity in who the tool is for. For renters, learning about their rights and fighting illegal fees. For landlords, charging the maximum amount permitted under the law.

limagnolia 1y ago
Or landlords who want to follow the law, but aren't sure what it is, trying to make sure they are doing things right.
- ChrisMarshallNY 1y ago
  Here on Long Island (NY), most apartments are illegal (addition/remodeled single-family homes). Many of them make you sign a lease, anyway, but they can get dismissed by any law student. Every now and then, some municipality claims that it will be "fighting illegal apartments," but they die quick deaths. If they got serious about it, the homeless population would explode, and a lot of folks would leave the state. Also, I believe that most of the rules that apply to apartments, come from municipalities, not states.
  - gruez 1y ago
    >Here on Long Island (NY), most apartments are illegal (addition/remodeled single-family homes). Many of them make you sign a lease, anyway, but they can get dismissed by any law student. What does this mean in practice? Courts won't enforce late fees or unpaid rents? Landlords can't evict bad tenants? Renters can terminate leases without any penalty?
    - ChrisMarshallNY 1y ago
      Pretty much. Landlords get in a lot of trouble, for renting illegal apartments. I have friends that rented apartments, and had Pacific Heights-type[0] problem tenants. The COVID era was a horror. Many tenants just stopped paying rent entirely. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Heights_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Heights_(film)
      - pixelatedindex 1y ago
        > Landlords get in a lot of trouble, for renting illegal apartments. Do you have a source for this because I’m not convinced. Maybe a small portion do but the majority face no penalties. When I was in college the number of questionably legal homes for rent was insane, but I didn’t have time to go after them. A friend of mine did and won, but it required a lot of time. Most of the time the landlord does what they want and the renters don’t have the resources to go after them. You make it sound like it’s the renters who take advantage of the landlords but most of the time it’s the landlords who do whatever they want. The ones who stopped paying rent probably were doing so legally because a lot of them were forced to not work.
Fraterkes 1y ago
If you look at the other tools on the page, there's stuff for property-management and sending rent-reminders. I guess they know what part of their userbase is the most moneyed.
terminalshort 1y ago
It's a tool, and like any tool it should be as neutral as possible.

limagnolia 1y ago

Utah appears to be calculating incorrectly, the text says "10% of rent or $75, whichever is GREATER." But it is doing the opposite, showing the lessor of 10% or $75.

limagnolia 1y ago
New Hampshire has the same bug.
- corndoge 1y ago
  Other states do as well.
  - gruez 1y ago
    Given that OP said it was "built in Replit"[1], I'm tempted to believe AI misgenerated the underlying calculation code. [1] Replit bills itself as "an AI-powered platform for building professional web apps and websites."
    - zahlman 1y ago
      I always thought Replit was supposed to be a pastebin site with built-in sandboxed code execution, so people could demo Python snippets and what-not. What happened?
      - Scoundreller 1y ago
        Vibe-coding webapps raise more money
      - gruez 1y ago
        see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45486035 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45486035 tl;dr: they pivoted from offering services adjacent to "learn to code" (among other things) to vibecoding
  - deleted 1y ago

vjekm 1y ago

[flagged]

gruez 1y ago
Most people aren't lawyers and therefore won't know what statues to read, so they'll need to search/ask AI, which is pretty much what this site does.