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# Landlords Charging Hidden Fees is a Widespread Problem for Renters
June 04 2026
Written by Patrick Range McDonald.
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HOUSING - The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has recently taken up the widespread problem of landlords charging hidden fees, which sneakily increase a tenant’s monthly rent. It’s not only an issue in San Francisco, but also in cities across the United States. In fact, Greystar, the country’s largest corporate landlord, agreed to a $24-million settlement in December 2025 with the Federal Trade Commission and the state of Colorado over hidden fees.
San Francisco Supervisor Bilal Mahmood made all kinds of headlines with his proposed ordinance called the No Hidden Rent Act. It requires landlords to be transparent about the real cost of renting in advertisements and lease agreements before tenants move into an apartment.
“People are being misled into signing up for rents that they cannot afford,” Mahmood told [The San Francisco Standard](https://sfstandard.com/2026/05/28/bilal-mahmood-hidden-rent-san-francisco/). “This legislation creates one clear number that renters can actually rely on.”
The ordinance also prohibits landlords from carrying out late fees, penalties, or evictions based on hidden fees.
One growing concern, in California, is that landlords have used hidden fees to get around the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, which created a statewide rent cap. To rake in more money without violating the law, landlords charge monthly hidden fees, such as payments for trash collection, administrative costs, building maintenance, and pest control.
It’s not just a problem in California. The San Francisco Standard noted that the National Apartment Association has tracked more than 25 state bills around the country that aim to stop hidden fees for renters.
A major example is Greystar, the country’s largest corporate landlord and led by CEO Bob Faith. In January 2025, the [Federal Trade Commission and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser](https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/greystar-et-al-ftc-colorado-v) filed a lawsuit against Greystar for “deceiving consumers about monthly rent costs by tacking on numerous mandatory fees on top of advertised prices,” an FTC press release stated.
Later in 2025, Greystar agreed to the [$24-million settlement](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/12/greystar-agrees-pay-24-million-stop-deceptive-advertising-practices-result-ftc-colorado-lawsuit). That money will be used to refund Greystar tenants who were victims of hidden fees.
“At a time when Americans are struggling to find affordable housing,” Christopher Mufarrige, the director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said, “the FTC is focused on monitoring the housing marketplace to ensure that competitors are meaningfully competing on price and that consumers receive transparent pricing.”
In March 2026, the FTC started the process to consider rule changes to prevent [hidden fees in the rental housing market](https://www.ftc.gov/policy/public-comments/rule-unfair-or-deceptive-rental-housing-fee-practices) and sought public comment from the public. It better act quickly: in Las Vegas, Greystar kept charging hidden fees, which included forcing a [93-year-old mother](https://www.ktnv.com/13-investigates/13-investigates-helps-93-year-old-tenant-fight-apartment-junk-fees-and-win-a-refund#google_vignette) to pay $25 per month for a parking space, even though she hasn’t owned a car in years.
In addition to hidden fees, Greystar was also implicated in the nationwide RealPage scandal, in which corporate landlords used RealPage software to collude and wildly inflate rents. It triggered numerous investigations and antitrust lawsuits, including one by the Department of Justice and several state attorneys general. In 2025, [Greystar and 25 other landlords](https://apnews.com/article/realpage-lawsuit-rental-software-algorithm-greystar-settlement-5a52c3cea866757a508d2efa8e12d0b5) agreed to collectively pay $141 million to end a class action lawsuit based in Tennessee.
(Read [“Greystar, the Largest Corporate Landlord in the U.S., Has a Shocking Track Record.”](https://www.housingisahumanright.org/greystar-the-largest-corporate-landlord-in-the-us-has-a-shocking-track-record/))
Numerous states have passed or are considering laws to ban rent-gouging software. In California, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the parent organization of Housing Is A Human Right, is pushing a [pro-tenant bill called SB 295](https://x.com/HousingHumanRt/status/2057552251107828154) to do exactly that.
If any lesson can be learned from the hidden fees and RealPage scandals, it’s that the constant mistreatment of tenants by predatory landlords, especially corporate landlords, underlines the serious, and urgent, need for elected officials in California and other states to pass stronger tenant protections, including [rent control](https://www.housingisahumanright.org/rent-control-is-one-part-of-the-answer/). Left to its own devices, the real estate industry continually takes advantage of hard-working renters, trying to squeeze every last cent out of them.
*(Patrick Range McDonald is an award-winning investigative reporter and advocacy journalist for Housing Is A Human Right.)*
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