> This is framed as "liquidated damages", which IIRC are not allowed in some jurisdictions
I'm not a lawyer, but I know from personal experience that California disallows liquidated damages for rental late fees that exceed actual damages (prorated interest). Plenty of landlords illegally collect late fees, but you can either not pay or sue them in small claims and recover the cost. There may even be some kind of statutory punitive damages for putting illegal late fees in a contract as there is for illegal non-competes, but again I'm not a lawyer. While California government is dysfunctional in many ways, at least the law there favors employees and renters more than any other state that I know of.
I'm not a lawyer, but I know from personal experience that California disallows liquidated damages for rental late fees that exceed actual damages (prorated interest). Plenty of landlords illegally collect late fees, but you can either not pay or sue them in small claims and recover the cost. There may even be some kind of statutory punitive damages for putting illegal late fees in a contract as there is for illegal non-competes, but again I'm not a lawyer. While California government is dysfunctional in many ways, at least the law there favors employees and renters more than any other state that I know of.