Late rent interest calculator
The rent is late. What am I allowed to charge, and how much has it come to?
Rules last read at source on 20 September 2026. England only — Scotland and Wales are different regimes, and none of this applies there.
The late rent
One rent payment — the instalment that has not been paid, not the annual rent.
The date it fell due under the tenancy agreement.
Interest is counted to today. Come back tomorrow and the figure will be a day larger.
Charging a lower rate?
Optional. Leave it empty and the page uses the legal maximum. Enter your own rate — the one in the tenancy agreement — to see what that actually comes to.
Add the rent and the date it was due, and this will show what has accrued — including the fourteen days at the start when nothing may be charged at all.
What this does not tell you
It works from what you typed in, and nothing else. Every one of these is a way the answer above can be right and your position still be wrong.
Interest is only chargeable where the tenancy agreement provides for it. Without a clause there is nothing to charge however overdue the rent is, and this page cannot see your agreement.
The cap moves with the Bank of England base rate, which the Monetary Policy Committee can change eight times a year. The page states which rate it used and when that rate was read, and says so plainly when it could not confirm today's.
Once the rent is more than 14 days overdue, this counts interest from the due date rather than from day 15. The Act sets the threshold without spelling out the count, so that is a reading rather than a quotation - and it is the one the Tenarize agreement is worded from.
Interest is the only permitted charge. A flat late fee, an administration charge or a debt-recovery fee is a prohibited payment whatever it is called and whoever adds it, including a letting agent.
It does not tell you whether charging is a good idea. Interest on a tenant who has lost their job is rarely what gets the rent paid, and it is not a step towards possession.
England only. The Tenant Fees Act does not apply in Scotland, and Wales has its own legislation.
Answers, in plain terms
How much interest can a landlord charge on late rent?
No more than the Bank of England base rate plus three percentage points, as an annual rate. That is the only charge the Tenant Fees Act 2019 permits for late rent, and it is a ceiling rather than a default - a lower rate in the tenancy agreement is the one that applies.
When can I start charging interest?
Once the rent is more than 14 days overdue. Nothing may be charged during those first fourteen days, and charging from day one is a prohibited payment even where the total would have been small. The calculator shows the first day anything becomes chargeable.
Can I charge a £25 late payment fee instead?
No. A flat fee for paying late is not a permitted payment under the Tenant Fees Act, whatever the tenancy agreement says and whether it is called a late fee, an administration charge or a letter fee. Interest within the cap is the only route.
What if the base rate falls after I set my rate?
The cap falls with it, and a rate written into an agreement two years ago can be above the cap today without anybody doing anything. What matters is the rate on the day you charge, so the figure to use is the lower of your rate and the current cap. Tenarize clamps to the cap at the moment of charging for exactly this reason, rather than trusting the stored figure.
Does charging interest help me get possession for arrears?
No - they are separate questions. Possession on the arrears grounds turns on how much rent is unpaid and for how long, and interest you have charged is not rent. If arrears are the real problem, the notice period is the thing to work out.
Tenarize runs this same calculation against your actual tenancies
The code behind this page is a copy of the code behind the product, kept in step by a check that fails our build if the two ever disagree. The difference is that inside Tenarize it runs against dates already on file, and tells you before the deadline rather than when you think to ask.