Can you be penalized with a late fee if the day rent is due the management office is closed?
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Can you be penalized with a late fee if the day rent is due the management office is closed?
I live in an apartment and the rent is due on the 1st. However, we are given a “grace period” until the 3rd. The 2nd was on Sunday and since the 3rd was a national holiday, the 4th was the first business day that they were in the office. The late fee that they then tacked on to a $460 rent payment was $75. Is that a reasonable estimate by any stretch of the imagination? And if the grace period lands on a day that the office is closed, can payment be expected on that day?
Asked on September 4, 2012 under Real Estate Law, Texas
Answers:
FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 11 years ago | Contributor
From what you have written you should not be assessed a late fee because the office where you could have dropped off the rent payment was closed on two consecutive days, July 2 and July 3.
Under the law for court filings if the due date to file a pleading falls on a weekend from the calculation of time under a given state's code of civil procedure, the first day for business, for example the Monday would be the due date for the court filing. By analogy, the first day of business after the office was closed even though it may have been one day after the grace period should be allowable as a payment date without a penalty for the rent being late.
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