Report discusses state and local laws addressing rental housing junk fees and provides recommendations to protect renters
WASHINGTON – Renters across the country face a dizzying number of junk fees that cost them hundreds of millions of dollars per year and push affordable housing out of reach. State and local governments play a central role in landlord-tenant law, and a new report from the National Consumer Law Center focuses on steps they can take to reduce junk fees in rental housing.
“What the Heck, Dude!”: How States Can Fight Rental Housing Junk Fees is a companion to the 2023 report, Too Damn High: How Junk Fees Add to Skyrocketing Rents, which detailed how these fees have proliferated and urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to rein them in. The new report argues that state and local laws can build on federal efforts to protect vulnerable tenants from junk fees in rental housing, and describes the rental housing junk fees laws some states and local governments have already enacted.
“Junk fees disproportionately harm people of color and lower income people who are more likely to be renters and struggle to find and maintain affordable housing,” said Ariel Nelson, staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center and co-author of the report. “State and local policymakers must regulate rental housing junk fees where federal law may not, including by simply banning all mandatory fees other than certain legitimate fees with defined limits.
The report, which takes its title from an individual renter’s comment to the Federal Trade Commission on rental housing junk fees, also highlights steps that government, private, and non-profit attorneys have taken to limit fees through the enforcement of relevant laws and lease provisions.
“Tackling rental housing junk fees has added an important dimension to the work tenants and tenant organizers are already doing to address poor rental conditions,” said Steve Sharpe, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center and co-author of the report. “State and local governments must prohibit surprise fees and all fees that are not modest, reasonable, and proportionate to the actual cost incurred by the housing provider.”
The report also outlines recommendations for state and local legislatures and states attorneys general, including: banning housing providers from charging fees other than specified fees that are reasonable and clearly disclosed; allowing optional fees only if the tenant has affirmatively opted in; collaborating with federal agencies to investigate and bring enforcement actions against landlords engaging in unlawful junk fees-related practices; and collecting and publishing data on rental housing junk fees in their state.
Related Resources
- Too Damn High: How Junk Fees Add to Skyrocketing Rents, March 13, 2023
- Digital Denials: How Abuse, Bias, and Lack of Transparency in Tenant Screening Harm Renters, September 26, 2023
- Unfair Debts With No Way Out: Consumers Share Their Experiences With Rental Debt Collectors, October 7, 2022
- Mission Creep: a Primer on Use of Credit Reports & Scores for Non-Credit Purposes, August 3, 2022
- Even the Catch-22s Come With Catch-22s: Potential Harms & Drawbacks of Rent Reporting, March 6, 2024
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