Free Oregon Late Rent Notice

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An Oregon late rent notice is a landlord’s courtesy demand that rent is past due – it states the rent owed, any lease late fee, and a date to pay by. Oregon gives tenants a four-day grace period before any late fee may be charged, and it permits the fee only in three specific structures under ORS 90.260. This is not a served 10-day notice to pay or quit; it is the softer first step that often prompts payment before formal action is ever needed. Build one below.

Courtesy Notice ORS 90.260 4-Day Grace Period Free PDF

An Oregon Late Rent Notice is an informal, courtesy demand a landlord sends when a tenant’s rent is past due. It states the past-due rent, any late fee the written rental agreement authorizes, and a clear date to pay by. It is not a statutory eviction notice and does not start any legal clock – it is the softer first contact that usually precedes a 10-day or 13-day notice to pay rent or quit under ORS 90.394. Oregon is unusual for giving tenants a firm statutory safeguard the notice must respect: under ORS 90.260 a landlord may not charge a late fee until the rent is unpaid on the fourth day of the rental period – a genuine four-day grace period – and the fee is limited to one of three permitted forms. The form below builds a clean notice and auto-sums the total; our Oregon late fee laws guide covers the fee structures in depth, and the Oregon 10-day pay-or-quit form is the next step if rent stays unpaid.

An Oregon late rent notice is a written reminder that a tenant’s rent is past due. It performs three simple jobs: it tells the tenant exactly what is owed (rent, plus any late fee the rental agreement allows once the four-day grace period has passed, plus any other authorized charge), it asks for payment by a specific date, and it signals – politely – what happens next if the rent stays unpaid. It is a collection tool and a courtesy, not a court document.

It is not a statutory notice. This is the single most important thing to understand about the document. Oregon law does not require a landlord to send a late rent notice, and sending one does not satisfy any legal prerequisite for eviction. The statutory notice for nonpayment is the 10-day or 13-day notice to pay rent or quit under ORS 90.394, which is a served legal notice a landlord must deliver before filing for eviction. The late rent notice sits before that step. It has no legally defined form, no required service method, and no statutory deadline attached to it.

When to send it. Send the late rent notice as soon as rent is actually past due and, if you intend to add a late fee, once Oregon’s four-day grace period under ORS 90.260 has passed. If the lease says rent is due on the 1st, the earliest a late fee may attach is when the rent is unpaid on the 4th, so the practical moment to send a notice that includes a fee is on or just after the 4th. Sending it promptly does two things: it maximizes the chance of a quick voluntary payment, and it starts a dated record while the facts are fresh.

Who it is for. The late rent notice is aimed at a cooperative tenant who simply has not paid yet. It is deliberately softer than a 10-day pay-or-quit – it does not threaten immediate court action, it invites payment, and it often preserves the tenancy. For a tenant who is chronically late or clearly not going to pay, many Oregon landlords still send the courtesy notice first (it costs nothing and strengthens the record) but move to the formal statutory notice quickly if there is no response.

Oregon is one of the states that gives residential tenants a true statutory grace period. Under ORS 90.260, a landlord may not impose a late charge until the rent is unpaid on the fourth day of the weekly or monthly rental period. That is a genuine four-day grace window written into state law – not a lease courtesy the landlord chose to offer. Rent that is one, two, or three days late simply cannot carry a late fee in Oregon.

What the four-day rule means in practice. If rent is due on the 1st, the earliest a late fee may attach is when the rent remains unpaid on the 4th. A landlord who bills a late fee on the 2nd or 3rd has charged a fee the statute does not allow, and the tenant is not obligated to pay it. This is different from most no-grace states, where rent is late – and a fee can theoretically attach – the day after the due date. In Oregon, the calendar does the gatekeeping.

Why this matters for the notice. Because the four-day grace period is statutory, the late rent notice should be timed and worded to respect it. If you are sending the notice before the fourth day simply to remind a tenant that rent is due, that is fine – but do not include a late fee until the four-day window has passed. State the due date, confirm the fourth day has come and gone, and only then add the fee the rental agreement authorizes.

Oregon does not leave the size of a late fee to open-ended “reasonableness.” Instead, ORS 90.260 lists a closed set of three permitted fee structures, and a residential late fee must fit one of them and be described in the written rental agreement. A fee that does not match one of these three forms is not enforceable.

Structure 1 – A reasonable flat fee

The landlord may charge a reasonable flat amount, once per rental period. Under ORS 90.260, “reasonable amount” means the customary amount charged by landlords for that rental market – so the flat fee should be in line with what comparable Oregon landlords in the area charge, not an arbitrary sum. This is the simplest and most common structure: one fixed fee per late period, disclosed in the rental agreement.

Structure 2 – A per-day charge capped at six percent of the flat fee

The landlord may instead charge a daily late fee for each day the rent is late, beginning on the fifth day of the rental period – but that per-day charge may not exceed six percent of the reasonable flat fee the landlord could otherwise charge under Structure 1. In other words, the daily amount is pegged to the flat fee: take the reasonable flat fee, multiply by six percent, and that is the ceiling on the daily charge. The daily fee accrues only through that rental period.

Structure 3 – Five percent of rent per five-day period

For periodic rent of one month or longer, the landlord may charge five percent of the periodic rent payment, once for each succeeding five-day period (or portion of one) that the rent remains unpaid, beginning on the fifth day. So on a monthly tenancy, the fee is five percent of the monthly rent for the first five-day block the rent is late, another five percent for the next five-day block, and so on. This structure is limited to monthly-or-longer periodic rent – it does not apply to a week-to-week tenancy.

The common thread. All three structures share two requirements: the fee cannot attach until after the four-day grace period, and the chosen structure must be described in the written rental agreement, which must state the type, amount, and timing of the charge. A landlord picks one structure – not a blend – and applies it consistently.

The late rent notice states one figure the tenant can pay to bring the account current. Build it from the rental agreement, line by line, respecting the four-day grace period and the chosen ORS 90.260 fee structure, and let the form total it for you:

Worked example. Rent is $1,500, due on the 1st. The tenant has not paid by the 8th, so the four-day grace period under ORS 90.260 has passed. Using the statutory five-percent-per-five-day structure of ORS 90.260, the late fee for the first five-day period is $75. The late rent notice states $1,500 past-due rent plus a $75 statutory late fee under ORS 90.260, for a total of $1,575 due. If the tenant’s earlier rent check had bounced, the lease could also add a returned-check charge under ORS 30.701. The form adds these for you and prints a single clear total.

Complete the form below to generate a clean Oregon late rent notice. Enter the rent past due and any authorized late fee or other charge; the form auto-sums the total, reminds you of the four-day grace period, and prints a professional PDF you can deliver to the tenant. Remember: this is a courtesy demand, so the payment methods you select are how the tenant can pay you – not legal service methods.

These are two different documents that do two different jobs. Confusing them is the most common mistake landlords make with late rent. The late rent notice is a courtesy; the 10-day or 13-day notice is the statutory step that opens the door to eviction.

The sequence in practice. Rent comes due and is not paid; once the four-day grace period passes, the landlord sends this courtesy late rent notice with a pay-by date. Most of the time, the tenant pays and the tenancy continues. If the tenant still does not pay, the landlord moves to the formal step: an Oregon 10-day notice to pay rent or quit, served under ORS 90.394 no sooner than the eighth day of the rental period (or a 13-day notice served no sooner than the fifth day). If that notice period expires unpaid, the landlord may file for eviction. Our Oregon eviction notice laws guide walks through that formal process end to end.

When a tenant’s rent check bounces, Oregon law lets a landlord recover more than just the rent. The dishonored-check statute, ORS 30.701, sets the framework:

• The check amount plus a service charge. A payee may recover the face amount of the dishonored check together with a fixed statutory service charge, if the lease authorizes a returned-check charge.
• Statutory damages after a written demand. After serving the maker a proper written demand that goes unsatisfied, ORS 30.701 allows additional statutory damages beyond the check amount, up to a statutory ceiling. This is a stronger remedy that requires following the statute’s written-demand procedure precisely – confirm the current service-charge and damages figures directly against the statute before pursuing it.
• Put it in the lease. As with the late fee, any returned-check charge should be authorized by the written rental agreement. It can be itemized on this courtesy late rent notice alongside the rent and any ORS 90.260 late fee.

A bounced check often means the rent is now late as well, so a single late rent notice can capture the past-due rent, the ORS 90.260 late fee, and the returned-check charge in one total – which is exactly what the form’s “other charges” field is for.

Because a late rent notice is a courtesy reminder and not a served statutory notice, there is no legal service method to satisfy. Any practical delivery works – the goal is simply to get the notice in front of the tenant and keep a record that you did. Choose the method that fits your relationship with the tenant and your rental agreement’s communication terms.

• Treating the late notice as a legal eviction notice. It is not. It starts no clock and satisfies no statutory prerequisite. Do not rely on it to support an eviction – only a properly served 10-day or 13-day pay-or-quit under ORS 90.394 does that.
• Charging a late fee before the fourth day. ORS 90.260 bars any late fee until the rent is unpaid on the fourth day of the rental period. A fee assessed on the 2nd or 3rd is not collectible.
• Using a fee structure the statute does not allow. Oregon permits only three forms – a reasonable flat fee, a capped per-day charge, or the five-percent-per-five-day option. A fee outside those forms, or one not in the written rental agreement, is unenforceable.
• Exceeding the per-day cap. If you use the per-day structure, the daily charge cannot exceed six percent of the reasonable flat fee. A higher daily amount is not allowed under ORS 90.260.
• Applying the 5% per-five-day fee to a weekly tenancy. That structure is limited to periodic rent of one month or longer. For week-to-week tenancies, use the flat fee or the capped per-day charge.
• Loading the statutory notice with fees. The 10-day or 13-day notice under ORS 90.394 is about the rent needed to cure. Keep the late fee and other charges on the courtesy notice, not the served statutory one.

For landlords

Send the notice promptly and keep the tone professional rather than adversarial – the goal is to get paid, not to pick a fight. Be precise about the numbers: state the rent, the ORS 90.260 late fee, and any returned-check or other charge as separate lines so the tenant can see exactly how the total was built. Confirm the four-day grace period has passed and that the fee fits one of the three permitted structures and is described in the written rental agreement. Set a realistic pay-by date that gives a cooperative tenant a genuine window to respond, and apply your late-fee policy consistently across all tenants. If the tenant does not respond by the pay-by date, do not wait indefinitely – escalate to the formal 10-day or 13-day notice so the clock actually starts.

For tenants

A late rent notice is a chance to fix the problem before it becomes a formal court step. Read the itemized amounts and confirm the late fee matches what your rental agreement says and what ORS 90.260 allows – if a fee was charged before the fourth day, or does not fit one of the three permitted structures, you can raise that. Pay by the date given if you can, and if you cannot pay in full, contact the landlord immediately to discuss a payment arrangement; a documented good-faith plan is far better than silence. Remember that the courtesy notice is not the eviction – but ignoring it is how a manageable late payment turns into a served 10-day or 13-day pay-or-quit and, eventually, a court case.

Oregon sits toward the tenant-protective end of the national range: it grants a firm four-day grace period and confines late fees to three statutory structures, where many states set no grace period at all and leave the fee to a loose “reasonableness” test. Other states take different approaches, which is why a late rent notice must be built to the specific state. Some states impose a different mandatory grace period, or none; some cap the late fee at a flat percentage of the monthly rent or a flat dollar amount; and some leave the fee entirely to the lease. Because these rules vary so widely, this page stays Oregon-specific; if you rent elsewhere, use the version of this form built for your state and confirm that state’s grace-period and fee rules.

The grace period and the three permitted fee forms turn on ORS 90.260, and the formal nonpayment path runs through the 10-day or 13-day notice under ORS 90.394. For the fee rules in depth see our Oregon late fee laws guide, and for the broader picture our Oregon landlord-tenant laws overview.

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