‘Extremely overwhelmed’: apartment renters face rising tide of fees
Across the US, many renters are urging national intervention to curb add-on charges that increase their housing expenses and heighten eviction risks.
“The rental housing market is one where consumers have little power,”Farah Momin, a Seattle renter, told the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in April.
“Landlords can impose fees through take-it-or-leave-it lease terms, and the cost/disruption of moving means that tenants may absorb unfair charges rather than leave. Federal baseline protections are needed to level this playing field.”
Momin, who described her own experience with the confusion, financial strain, and powerlessness caused by rental junk fees, was among hundreds of tenants, activists, and industry officials providing input on the FTC’s new rulemaking process for rental housing fees.
Of 471 publicly available comments, nearly 400 explicitly supported regulation or highlighted problems with junk fees, according to a analysis. Over 60 commenters opposed or expressed concerns about regulation, mostly representing trade groups.
“Restrictions on reasonable fees create practical barriers, inflate base housing costs, and reduce access to valued resident services,”leading industry groups stated in a comment.
“Fees and charges are a necessary part of pricing structures.”
Tenants have seen a surge in fees atop rent as the property management sector, which relies on fees to boost revenue, has expanded across American housing. According to a analysis of census data, professionally managed buildings have increased their share of the rental market by 47% over the past decade. Professional management is most prevalent in complexes with 50 or more units, the only segment where it is used in over half of units.
Federal changes coming?
The push to regulate junk fees in rental housing follows years of debate between industry leaders and public officials, alongside a growing number of lawsuits challenging such fees.
In 2022, the Biden administration’s FTC initiated a broad effort to regulate junk fees, including those in rental housing. The National Apartment Association (NAA) and other industry stakeholders opposed this, submitting 3,800 public comments against regulation. The FTC ultimately paused the rulemaking.
The renewed rulemaking follows two FTC settlements concerning junk fees in rental housing. In 2024, Invitation Homes, the largest landlord of single-family rental homes in the US, agreed to a $48 million settlement over allegations it unfairly charged tenants millions in junk fees and other improper amounts. Invitation Homes did not admit wrongdoing and stated in a press release that it
“believes that its disclosures and practices are industry leading, both among its professional peers as well as the millions of smaller owners of single-family homes for lease.”
In December, the FTC and Colorado announced a $24 million settlement with Greystar, the largest apartment owner and manager nationwide, over similar allegations. Greystar also did not admit wrongdoing.
In a statement regarding the case, Greystar said its practice of
“advertising base rent to potential residents,”then adding mandatory fees, was a
“longstanding, industrywide practice.”The company told it has taken
“a proactive leadership position in advocating for industry-wide clarity, consistency and transparency.”
Apartment industry groups claim to support transparency and fee disclosure but argue in public FTC comments against policies that would
“prevent the effective use of fees and charges in rental housing.”
The rulemaking has also drawn attention from lawmakers. In April, a coalition of 27 state attorneys general submitted a comment urging the FTC to adopt a
“clear minimum federal standard”for junk fees in housing.
In mid-April, the first public comment period on FTC regulations closed. Officials stated they were still reviewing comments as of late May and planned to propose a timeline after completing their review. The FTC’s previous junk fee rulemaking took two and a half years from its October 2022 announcement to rules taking effect in May 2025.
‘Total’ pricing
The FTC’s January rulemaking text echoed the Greystar settlement terms. Under the settlement, Greystar must disclose a
“total monthly leasing price”that includes base rent and all mandatory, fixed fees, but excludes mandatory, variable utility fees. These variable fees cover in-unit utilities and
“common area”utility charges, which are allocated among tenants to cover electricity, gas, water, and maintenance in shared spaces outside individual apartments.
The FTC also sent warning letters to 13 major property management software providers, including RealPage, Yardi Systems, and Turbo Tenant, after the settlement. These letters cautioned that advertising incomplete prices could lead to penalties up to $53,088 per violation and legal action.
Supporters of further regulation argue that including all mandatory fees in rent prices will foster fair competition and reduce tenant costs.
“When you add all those junk fees, the price disparity will be more obvious,”said Representative Maxwell Frost, Democrat of Florida.
“You just gotta be upfront about what you’re charging.”
Frost, who has paid multiple fees as a renter including a $300 application fee, introduced the Rent Relief Act in 2023 and 2025. This legislation would apply to federally financed housing, banning certain fees, requiring total rent prices inclusive of all fees, and mandating landlords to report maintenance, legal issues, and rent histories. Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, introduced a companion Senate bill in June last year. Neither bill has Republican cosponsors.
Most states lack explicit protections against rental junk fees. Only a few—Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Nevada—require landlords to advertise a total monthly leasing price. Another 17 states regulate certain junk charges like application or late fees, according to a November 2023 report by the National Consumer Law Center.
The National Apartment Association (NAA), a major landlord and property management trade group with over 113,000 members, stated that
“rental housing is already highly regulated at all levels of government … Fees and charges are a necessary part of pricing structures that keep rental housing communities financially stable.”
Greystar supports the FTC requiring the apartment industry to adhere to the rules it agreed to in its settlement. The company’s public comments back rolling fixed, mandatory fees into advertised prices but oppose including variable mandatory utility fees.
Local NAA affiliates submitted comments based on an NAA template, many arguing that rental housing transactions are too complex for
“all-in pricing,”which refers to advertising rents inclusive of mandatory fees. The NAA told that all-in pricing could
“artificially inflate rental housing costs.”
Utility fees a top concern
Mandatory utility fees were the most frequent complaint among comments supporting regulation or criticizing fees. Many landlords now bill tenants for building-wide and in-unit utility costs through third-party ratio utility billing services (RUBS) companies, which use proprietary formulas rather than documented individual usage.
Most Greystar leases reviewed by used Utah-based American Utility Management (AUM), a private equity-backed firm that describes itself as the
“largest utility management provider in the nation.”
Utility charges were among the first troubling issues Shaun Cordeiro noticed with his new landlord, Greystar. Cordeiro, a behavioral economist, moved into a Greystar building on Boston Harbor in 2022. The water bills for the apartment he shared with his partner, calculated by a formula he said he never saw, did not align with their actual usage.
When he raised the issue with management,
“they kind of tried to play it off as, you know, it all comes out in the wash,”Cordeiro said.
“I’m like, I’m an economist. It does not just ‘come out in the wash.’”
Cordeiro did not take action until later, when Greystar began charging him eviction and legal fees after a health crisis caused rent arrears. The disputed fees created a negative account balance, making it impossible to catch up on rent without paying the fees.
In November 2023, Cordeiro filed a class action lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts alleging that Greystar violated state law by charging eviction fees without a court order. The case is ongoing.
In court filings, Greystar denied any
“unlawful or unfair”conduct and claimed Cordeiro and his partner owed over $5,000 in unpaid rent and fees.
“There are so many things that we just allow to happen that we accept – this fee here, or this extra charge here or there,”Cordeiro said. It often feels, he added,
“like often it’s not worth the fight. But it is.”
He warned that unless tenants push back,
“these large corporations are just going to continue to operate as they do.”
