Can a landlord charge a late-payment penalty on rent?
Short answer
A landlord cannot impose a fine for late rent on their own, and the unified residential lease published by Ejar has no late-fee clause: it provides a payment grace period and then the lessor’s right to terminate. Article 178 of the Civil Transactions Law lets parties fix compensation in advance, except where the obligation is a sum of money, and rent is a sum of money. The landlord can recover the unpaid rent through an execution request on Najiz; any daily fines the Execution Court may impose are not paid to the landlord.
What Article 178 of the Civil Transactions Law says
Article 178 of the Civil Transactions Law (Royal Decree M/191 dated 29/11/1444H) allows contracting parties to set the amount of compensation in advance, in the contract or a later agreement, without any formal notice being needed. It expressly excludes cases where the obligation is a sum of money. The tenant’s core obligation is to pay rent on the agreed dates (Article 429), which is a money obligation, so this permission does not cover it.
What the unified residential lease says about late payment
The sample unified residential lease that Ejar publishes for reference (July 2024 file) provides:
- A grace period counted from each due date: 30 days if the payment cycle is 180 days or more, 15 days if it is shorter.
- The lessor may terminate the lease through Ejar if the tenant is late by “(15) or (30) days after the grace period ends”, unless the parties agree a different period through Ejar.
- A party who delays paying any expenses related to the unit bears the costs and fees caused by that delay (Article 13); the clause does not say whether rent itself counts as such an expense.
- If the tenant fails to hand back the unit after the lease ends, they owe an amount entered in the contract as daily rent (Article 12). This covers late return of the unit, not late rent.
- The parties may add terms that do not conflict with the unified terms; conflicting additional terms are void (Article 18).
Execution Court fines are not paid to the landlord
A unified lease documented on Ejar is an executive instrument for collecting unpaid rent through Najiz. The Execution Law’s daily fines are a way to force compliance, not compensation for the landlord:
- Until 27 October 2026 (Law M/53): the only daily fine is in direct enforcement, such as eviction, when the competent force cannot carry it out or the debtor must do it personally: up to SAR 10,000 a day, paid into the court’s account (Article 69).
- From 28 October 2026 (Law M/237): in enforcement against assets the court may impose up to SAR 5,000 a day, collected only after the enforcement proceeds are distributed (Article 18); in eviction, up to SAR 10,000 a day if the competent force cannot carry it out (Article 36). In both cases the proceeds go to the State Treasury.
Follow-up questions
Can a late fee be added to an Ejar lease as an additional term?
The unified lease allows additional terms that do not conflict with its own terms; conflicting ones are void. But Article 178, which permits compensation fixed in advance, excludes money obligations such as rent, so it cannot serve as a basis for a late fee on rent.
What can a landlord do when the tenant pays late?
Once the grace period has passed, the landlord can file an execution request on Najiz to collect the rent and can terminate under the clause above. In the Riyadh urban area, the tenant’s failure to pay is also a ground on which the landlord may refuse renewal.
Can late-payment charges be deducted from the security deposit?
The unified residential lease returns the deposit within 30 days of vacating, after deducting amounts owed for damage the tenant caused to the unit. The clause does not mention deducting any late-payment fine.
Official sources
- Civil Transactions Law (Bureau of Experts at the Council of Ministers)
- Ejar: unified residential lease sample published for reference (July 2024 file, archived copy)
- Ejar: residential lease contract page
- Execution Law 1447H (M/237), in force from 28 October 2026
- Execution Law 1433H (M/53), applicable until 27 October 2026
General information for guidance, not legal advice; the governing regulations and official bodies are the final reference.
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Related questions
- What can a landlord do if the tenant stops paying rent?
- How do I cancel a lease documented on Ejar before it ends?
- What changes for landlords under the new Execution Law from 28 October 2026?
- Can a landlord in Riyadh refuse to renew a lease?
- Can I pay rent in cash or by direct bank transfer outside Ejar?
- When does rent paid through Ejar reach the landlord’s account?
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