WASHINGTON — Tenants across the U.S. are facing a rising tide of mandatory fees layered on top of base rent, and hundreds have told the Federal Trade Commission that the practice amounts to a take-it-or-leave-it system that leaves renters with little recourse.
“The rental housing market is one where consumers have little power,” Farah Momin, a renter in Seattle, said in a comment to the 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’s comment was one of 471 submissions the agency received during its first public comment period for a new rulemaking process on rental housing fees, which closed in mid-April. Of those, nearly 400 explicitly supported regulation or listed problems with so-called “junk fees,” according to a Guardian analysis. More than 60 commenters opposed or raised concerns about regulation, most of them members or representatives of trade groups.
The rulemaking effort has drawn the attention of lawmakers as well. In April, a coalition of 27 state attorneys general submitted a comment urging the agency to adopt a “clear minimum federal standard” for junk fees in housing.
“We are urging the FTC to take action so families can make informed decisions and avoid deceptive pricing,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a separate statement.
Leading property management industry groups, including the National Apartment Association, which represents more than 113,000 members, pushed back in a joint statement to the FTC. “Fees and charges are a necessary part of pricing structures that keep rental housing communities financially stable,” the groups said. They argued that “restrictions on reasonable fees create practical barriers, inflate base housing costs, and reduce access to valued resident services.”
The renewed rulemaking follows two major FTC settlements over junk fees in rental housing. In 2024, Invitation Homes, the largest landlord of single-family rental homes in the U.S., agreed to a $48 million settlement over allegations that it improperly charged tenants “millions of dollars in junk fees and other bogus amounts.” Invitation Homes did not admit wrongdoing and said in a statement that it believed its disclosures and practices were “industry leading.”
In December, the FTC and the state of Colorado announced a $24 million settlement with Greystar, the country’s largest owner and manager of apartments, over similar allegations. Greystar also did not admit wrongdoing. In a press release at the time, the company said its practice of “advertising base rent to potential residents” and then adding mandatory fees was a “longstanding, industrywide practice.”
Under the terms of the Greystar settlement, the company must disclose a “total monthly leasing price” that includes base rent and all mandatory fixed fees — but not the cost of mandatory variable utility fees, which can include charges for in-unit utilities as well as “common area” utility costs split among tenants.
The FTC also sent letters after the settlement to 13 of the nation’s largest property management software providers — including RealPage, Yardi Systems and Turbo Tenant — warning that advertising incomplete prices could result in penalties of up to $53,088 per violation and legal action.
Mandatory utility fees were the most common complaint among commenters supporting regulation, according to the Guardian analysis. Many landlords now bill tenants for building-wide and in-unit utility costs through third-party “ratio utility billing services” companies, which use a custom formula rather than documented individual usage.
Shaun Cordeiro, a behavioral economist who moved into a Greystar building on Boston Harbor in 2022, told the Guardian that he became alarmed when his water bills — calculated using a formula he said he never saw — did not appear to match his usage. When he raised the issue with management, he said, “they kind of tried to play it off as, you know, it all comes out in the wash. I’m like, I’m an economist. It does not just ‘come out in the wash.’”
Cordeiro later filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts in November 2023, alleging that Greystar charged eviction and legal fees without a court order after a health crisis caused him and his partner to fall behind on rent. The case is pending. In court filings, Greystar denied any “unlawful or unfair” conduct and alleged that Cordeiro and his partner owed more than $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. “Often it’s not worth the fight. But it is.”
The FTC’s previous rulemaking on junk fees, which targeted event tickets and short-term rentals, took two and a half years from its initial announcement in October 2022 to rules going into effect in May 2025. Officials said in late May they were still reviewing the rental housing comments and planned to suggest a timeline once that work was complete.
Most states currently have no explicit protections against rental junk fees. Only a handful — including Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Nevada — require landlords to advertise a total monthly leasing price, according to a November 2025 report by the National Consumer Law Center. Another 17 states have regulations addressing certain types of junk charges, such as application or late fees.
Representative Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., introduced the End Junk Fees for Renters Act in 2023 and again in 2025. The legislation, which would apply only to housing backed with federal financing, would ban certain fees, require a total rent price that includes all fees, and require landlords to report the history of maintenance, legal issues and rents for a property. Senator Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced a companion bill in the Senate last June. Neither bill has Republican cosponsors.
“You just gotta be upfront about what you’re charging,” Frost said, adding that he has been forced to pay multiple fees as a renter, including a $300 application fee. “When you add all those junk fees, the price disparity will be more obvious.”