The late fee in your lease might not be collectible.

Chicago doesn’t leave late fees to the landlord’s imagination. The city caps what you can charge — and the cap is lower than most leases assume. Write a number above it, or structure the fee as a daily amount that snowballs, and the whole charge can become unenforceable. You don’t just lose the fee; you hand the tenant a talking point — and sometimes a claim.

Why so many late-fee clauses are quietly void:

1. There’s a hard cap, and it’s modest. Chicago limits the fee to a set amount on the first slice of monthly rent, plus a small percentage on the rest. The exact formula is what trips people up — it’s not “whatever the lease says.” Anything over the cap isn’t “mostly fine.” The excess is unenforceable. How the cap is calculated →

2. Per-day fees are where leases blow it. “$25, plus $10 a day” feels reasonable and almost always exceeds the limit within a week. Daily or compounding structures are the single most common way a late fee goes from legal to void.

3. An illegal fee can poison more than the fee. If your rent demand or your 5-day notice includes a late fee you weren’t entitled to, you’ve over-demanded — and an over-demand can sink the whole notice. The fee doesn’t just disappear; it can take your eviction with it.

4. “It’s in the lease” isn’t a shield. A signature doesn’t make an over-cap fee enforceable. A void term is void — and certain illegal clauses can carry their own exposure just for being in the document.

5. Timing still matters. When the fee can even start accruing, and what you have to disclose, aren’t afterthoughts. Getting the number right but the timing wrong still buys you a fight.

Hall of shame: “It’s in the lease, so it’s enforceable.” — the assumption that has voided more late fees than any tenant ever did.

Reader Q: A Pilsen landlord asks, “Can I charge $10 a day until they pay?” Careful — “per day” is exactly how a fee blows past the cap. Whether yours does is a your-numbers question.

The cap applies to every Chicago landlord. Whether your exact fee — on your rent amount — sits inside it is the part a newsletter can’t see. That’s what Dweller IQ is for.

The Fine Print is plain-language general guidance, not legal advice — verify against the current ordinance or your attorney before acting on your specific situation.