What's normal for late fees?

I used to be at a barn w. A late fee...flat fee of $25 if you paid after the first of the month...I don't think it was ever an issue bc that seemed to motivate everyone to pay on time!

Late fee is 10% of boarding fee 10 days after board is due and then it jumps to 25% after 10 days.

5/day . I would do a day vs flat fee.

Here's an interesting way to handle it -

We didn't call it a late fee. We gave a 10% discount to boards who paid early, that is, before the first of the month. Any board payments received after the first of the month didn't receive the discount.

Somehow this made it more palatable to the boarders.

And I had one boarder who chose to pay an entire year's board in advance to get the discount and not have to worry about missing the deadline. This was fabulous, I got a chunk of cash to do a capital improvement every year.

When I was boarding, the owner of the property wouldn't let us do that! They'd just rid themselves of a really bad boarder who never came out [it was all DIY self-care in a pasture so coming out to see the horse was part and parcel!] and I think they were terrified they'd get themselves stuck in the same situation if we paid ahead.

Once we got into the rhythm of paying monthly, once the property owners had had a chance to see we were good boarders who, y'know, actually turned up every day to look after our horses, they would have let us do it, but we didn't ask again. Such lovely people, it was almost a shame when we got the lease on our current ten acres because it meant we didn't get to see them daily any more!

Mum liked to pay long-term because it secured the boarding. She'd been kicked out without notice a few times [for no reason!] and people are less likely to just up and kick you out if you've already paid. But I find that if you board at an actual barn/center instead of random private properties, you sign a contract, and it's easier to get the property owner to stick by their side of it!

From the other side [I work at a center] it's much easier to have a contract to ensure you get paid and to make sure that your boarders understand exactly what they're getting for their money! My boss charges a lot, but all hay, feed and rugging is included, and fly masks on/off as necessary, and individual pastures. Some boarders pay a little extra to get special suppliments, like one horse gets brewers yeast for his extremely sensitive stomach and another gets MSM to keep his joints working properly, and other boarders pay a little less because they supply their own basic vitamin/mineral suppliment. There's an extra fee to use the arena, which every boarder understands as this is laid out in the contract and marked on the "arena booking" whiteboard/notebook. I don't know if she even charges a late fee - she's nearly always full, so it'd be easy enough to just kick a boarder out if they weren't paying their way.

I've been at barns that have done what maura described, if you paid by the 1st then you got a $25 discount. I have also boarded at barns where there is a $25 late fee if you pay after the 5th of the month, I find most places that I've been at have had late fees starting around the 5th.

same here. This is the most typical clause i've seen in all of the boarding contracts i've looked over.