Georgia late fee law

7%per year

Attaches to the debt by operation of law when you agreed no rate, so it accrues before any lawsuit and can be stated on a demand letter.

"The legal rate of interest shall be 7 percent per annum simple interest where the rate percent is not established by written contract." Verified via the full statute text on FindLaw's Georgia Code and corroborated by Justia's 2024 Code of Georgia (the official OCGA is published via LexisNexis and was not directly fetchable).

By written contract, parties may agree to any rate for loans/transactions of $3,000 to $250,000 (rate must be expressed in simple-interest terms) and any rate however expressed for $250,000 or more; loans of $3,000 or less are capped at 16% simple (O.C.G.A. § 7-4-2). All rates remain subject to Georgia's criminal-usury ceiling: charging more than 5% per month on any loan, advance, or forbearance is a misdemeanor (O.C.G.A. § 7-4-18). Separately, for B2B trade credit, O.C.G.A. § 7-4-16 lets the owner of a 'commercial account' (obligation from sale/furnishing of goods or services, non-retail-installment) charge up to 1.5% per month on amounts due and payable 30+ days.

public+private-construction

Georgia Prompt Pay Act (O.C.G.A. §§ 13-11-1 to 13-11-11) covers BOTH public and private construction contracts: owners must pay contractors within 15 days and contractors must pay subcontractors within 10 days of receiving payment; late amounts bear interest at 1% per month (§ 13-11-7), but only if the payee gave notice of the statute with the payment request, and the parties may contract for different rates/terms, which control. It applies to construction of improvements to real property, not general commercial invoices.

Distinctive Georgia rule: even without an agreed late-fee clause, a seller of goods/services on a commercial account may charge up to 1.5% per month on balances 30+ days past due, and the account is due when a statement is rendered unless a signed writing says otherwise (O.C.G.A. § 7-4-16). Flat agreed late fees are otherwise governed by the ordinary liquidated-damages/penalty doctrine.