Audience: Alberta renters who’ve been charged late fees or are about to sign a lease with one

Your lease says rent is due on the first. You paid on the fifth — maybe your pay cycle shifted, maybe the e-transfer took an extra day. Now your landlord says you owe $100 in late fees. Four days at $25 a day.

You check the lease. It’s right there in black and white: “$25.00 per day for any payment of Rent that is paid after the third business day of a month.”

So you pay it, because what choice do you have? You signed the lease.

Here’s the thing: that clause likely has no legal authority.

What we actually found in a real Edmonton lease

We analyzed a real 15-page lease from a numbered company in Edmonton. Buried in the payment terms was exactly that — a $25 per day late fee kicking in after the third business day.

On $1,400 monthly rent, if a tenant fell one full month behind, that clause would pile on $750 in late fees alone. More than half the rent itself. On top of the rent already owed.

That’s not a late fee. That’s a penalty designed to terrify tenants into never questioning anything else in the lease.

What the Alberta RTA actually says about late fees

The Residential Tenancies Act doesn’t explicitly authorize late fees. Section 70(1)(j) gives the Minister the power to create regulations around late fees and cap them — but no permanent regulation has ever been made. The only one that existed, AR 55/2020, covered the COVID period from April to June 2020 and has since expired.

So where does that leave late fees in Alberta? In a grey zone.

Some RTDRS adjudicators have ruled late fees unenforceable because no regulation authorizes them. Others have allowed them as contractual terms — but only when they’re reasonable and proportionate to actual costs.

A $25/day penalty that can snowball into hundreds of dollars is neither reasonable nor proportionate. It’s punitive. And punitive damages clauses have a long history of being struck down in Canadian courts.

What the landlord’s actual remedy is

If you don’t pay rent, the landlord has a legal remedy under the RTA. It’s not daily penalties. It’s a 14-day notice to pay or vacate under section 14 of the Act. If you pay within those 14 days, the notice is cancelled. If you don’t, the landlord can apply to RTDRS for an order of possession.

That’s the process the law provides. A lease can’t substitute its own enforcement mechanism — daily financial penalties — for the one the legislature designed.

Why landlords include it anyway

Because it works. Not legally — psychologically.

Most tenants don’t know the RTA. They see a late fee in the lease, they assume it’s legal. They pay it without questioning it because they’re afraid of getting evicted. Some landlords count on that.

The same Edmonton lease we analyzed had 15 different fees in its schedule. Twelve of them had no basis in Alberta law. The late fee was just the most aggressive.

What you should actually do

If your lease includes a late fee clause — especially a daily compounding one — don’t panic, but don’t ignore it either.

If your landlord charges you a late fee, respond in writing. Something like: “I dispute this charge. The Alberta RTA does not authorize late payment fees, and no regulation under s.70(1)(j) currently caps or authorizes them. If you disagree, I’m happy to have this resolved through RTDRS.”

You don’t need a lawyer for RTDRS. Filing costs $75, hearings happen by phone or video, and if you win, the adjudicator can order the landlord to reimburse the filing fee.

If you haven’t signed the lease yet, even better. Ask the landlord to remove the clause. Most professional property managers will revise rather than lose a qualified tenant.

How to check your own lease

We built the RentalProof Lease Analyzer specifically for situations like this. Upload your lease PDF, and we check every single clause against 93 verified Alberta legal rules — including late fees, NSF charges, deposit violations, liability waivers, and more.

Every finding comes with the exact statute citation so you can verify it yourself. No generic AI summaries. Real law, real sections, real analysis.

The two leases we’ve analyzed so far contained over $2,000 each in fees with no legal basis. The late fee was just the beginning.

→ Check your lease for $10 at analyzer.rentalproof.us

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Tenancy law is complex and individual circumstances vary. For binding legal interpretation, consult the RTDRS or a licensed lawyer in Alberta.

The $25/Day Late Fee Trap: Why Your Alberta Landlord Can’t Legally Charge It