Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

You probably can not. A three day notice is only about the tenant not paying rent . If they had paid the rent on time then there would be no late charge.

As a practical matter, you do not want to include those charges as if the tenant

can show the 3 day notice is defective in anyway, the notice fails. The penalty and interest you charge may have to have bear a reasonable relationship to what actual economic losses you suffered from the failure to pay rent. You want a three notice trial to be very simply.

Mr. Shers' reasoning has me convinced. Whether the late fee, etc. is lawful or not should not be an issue in the unlawful detainer proceeding. Leave it out.

The general advice given is not to include late fees in the three day pay or quit notice. The following link contains some guidelines from the courts: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/other/landtenqa-land8.htm

Having the improper amount of rent demanded in a three day pay or quit notice is the easiest way to lose an unlawful detainer lawsuit. If, at trial, the court finds that hte rent due at the tie the three-day notice was served was less than the amount demanded in the notice, you will lose the lawsuit. (Ernst Enterprises, Inc. v. Sun Valley Gasoline, Inc. (1983) 139 Cal.App.3d 355.)

Although there is some discussion in case law about including late fees if they are specified in the lease agreement, this appears to be shaky ground. For that reason, most attorneys advise landlords to not include late charges, check bounce or other fees of any kind, interest, utility charges, or anything else other than unpaid rent in the notice.

The advice you have received is sound. I would just add that if you want to be able to include those fees, you would need an extremely well written lease that would support the argument that they are "rent."