The Guardian81%
‘Extremely overwhelmed’: apartment renters face rising tide of fees 22%
By Tracie McMillan0%
6/24/2026, 10:00:43 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 37 faulty reasoning types, including Anecdotal, Appeal to Authority, and Post Hoc (False Cause), with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 26.3% saturation with 777 hits. Analysis detected 4,881 faulty-reasoning hits from 2,954 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 35.8% and a BS Rank of 22% (17,061 of 21,886 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 78.00% of the article peer group.
Tenants at apartment complexes operated by Greystar, the largest owner and manager of apartments in the US, don’t just pay rent.
They pay a mass of fees that many renters have never heard of before.
These add-ons include “boiler management fees”, “variable refrigerant flow fees”, “solar rebill” fees, even “lifestyle fees”.
Tenants and lawsuits in multiple states call many of these fees inflated, illegal, predatory or overwhelming.
“A fee for this, a fee for that was just crazy to me,” Nichole Collins, a former tenant at a Greystar-managed building in Colorado, said.
“I had never experienced that before.”
Long lists of fees are common at buildings operated by Greystar, a private equity-backed conglomerate that owns or manages more than 1m apartments across the US.
According to tenants, housing attorneys, public officials and court claims, this tangle of extra charges fattens the company’s bottom line, increases renters’ risks of eviction and undermines fair competition in the apartment market by muddying the real price they pay for shelter.
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The added costs that tenants at Greystar-branded complexes pay are part of a rising tide of fees that have soaked nearly every corner of the US economy.
Online and at bricks-and-mortar businesses, Americans are compelled to pay a deluge of extra charges – processing fees, delivery fees, service fees, overdraft fees, activation fees, termination fees, “convenience” fees and more.
The stakes are high when it comes to housing.
Expenses that in times past were often covered by rent have been spun off and turned into extra charges – generating a lineup of fees that in some cases can increase individual tenants’ housing costs by hundreds of dollars a month.
The Guardian counted at least 125 different named fees in leases, court documents and rental listings for apartments managed by Greystar.
Combinations of these fees span Washington DC and all 42 states with listings on the company’s website, and include various upfront fees, monthly fees and penalty charges.
Half of these fees are mandatory.
Some costs come with specific dollar charges, while others – such as fees for “common area” maintenance and utilities – have no dollar amount and are listed only as “usage based” or “varies”.
The Guardian found mandatory, unpriced fees in Greystar apartment listings in 40 states and the District of Columbia.
Tenants are challenging fees charged at Greystar-managed complexes in lawsuits filed in multiple states.
These include nine cases currently seeking class action status in Colorado, California, Nevada and Massachusetts.
In a statement, Greystar told the Guardian “we disagree with the allegations” in these court actions “and are actively defending those cases”.
In various court filings, the company has called tenants’ legal complaints factually deficient, implausible and “futile”.
In its statement, Greystar said it “would never knowingly implement a resident cost that we believe violates any law, nor would we allow a property to charge for an expense which is not permitted under a valid lease agreement”.
Greystar agreed in December to pay $24m to settle claims by state and federal authorities that it had gouged renters with hundreds of millions of dollars in hidden charges at properties owned by Greystar as well as at properties the company managed for other landlords.
Greystar did not admit to wrongdoing and the settlement did not put limits on the fees it charges as long as the fees are disclosed.
Collins, the former Colorado tenant, is the lead plaintiff in one of the cases targeting the company.
The lawsuit calls pest control, trash and billing charges at Greystar-run buildings “a lie” – “junk fees” that are inflated “far beyond the true cost of any services provided by Greystar”.
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The suit, filed in 2024 in state court in Denver, says Greystar charged tenants three different billing fees just to be able to pay rent and other fees – a “new account fee” of $15 to $20, a regular “administrative billing fee” as high as $6 a month and a “final bill fee” of $5 to $10.
In court documents, Greystar says that the billing charges and other fees were fully disclosed in Collins’ lease.
Another state court case in Denver, filed in 2025, alleges that many of the fees that Greystar has charged Colorado tenants – including a $26.75-a-month boiler management fee – were improper because they shifted the costs of basic services that are required by law, such as maintaining heating systems and providing for trash disposal, on to tenants.
That suit claims the size of the boiler fee “exceeds any actual expenses Greystar may have for ‘managing the boiler’, to the extent such expenses even exist and have been determined by Greystar”.
The Guardian identified 93 properties managed by Greystar in Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas where the company included charges for “boiler management” in rental listings in late February.
Most of these charges ranged between $13.75 and $16.75 a month.
Greystar did not answer questions from the Guardian about boiler management fees.
In the case in Colorado, Greystar said boiler management fees were included in the lead plaintiff’s lease and that boiler charges and other similar fees are allowed under state law.
In state court in Nevada, a class action filed in September accuses Greystar and its business partners of “routinely charging illegal fees to low income and fixed income tenants” – creating a “vicious cycle” that caused these tenants to “fall further and further behind on their rent, often resulting in eviction”.
Payment ledgers for the lead plaintiff in the case, Jaslyn Cosey, showed she paid $300 in application and administrative fees to get a chance at an apartment at Glo, a complex that describes itself as an urban sanctuary minutes from Las Vegas’s greatest attractions.
After Greystar approved her for the two-bedroom unit, Cosey, a customer service worker, was charged a $150 “move-in cleaning” fee followed by a string of monthly charges.
Among them: $20 for “common area maintenance”, $6 for a utility service fee, and water, sewer and trash services that were billed to her, the suit claims, “according to an inscrutable ‘formula’”.
All the fees – including late charges that mounted as Cosey struggled to keep up – left her “extremely overwhelmed”, Cosey told the Guardian.
“Because, you know, not only is that happening, but life is happening as well.
Groceries are going up.
Other things are happening as well.”
These costs, Cosey claims in court documents and in interviews, helped start her down a spiral that led to eviction and months of homelessness.
Leases at Greystar-run properties reviewed by the Guardian indicate that failing to pay many fees can be considered grounds for eviction.
Leases also show that payments from tenants go toward paying off fees first – a policy that can leave tenants short on their rent and put them at additional risk of losing their homes.
Greystar did not respond to questions about how failing to pay fees could lead to eviction and did not address questions related to the origin, purpose, type, number, or range of fees at properties it manages or owns.
In court documents Greystar asserts that, when it manages properties that belong to other landlords, it does not charge or receive fees and does not determine what fees will be charged.
But the company acknowledged to the Guardian that “we work closely with the property owners to recommend and determine the appropriate pricing model and rates” – including “base rents” and fees.
A January 2025 lawsuit filed by Colorado’s attorney general and the Biden administration’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleged that Greystar helps other landlords decide what fees to charge tenants and generally takes a percentage of these fees.
“The more fees Greystar-managed properties charge,” the suit claimed, “the more money Greystar makes.”
The lawsuit, which led to Greystar’s $24m settlement in December, alleged that the company collected more than $100m in “hidden fees” from tenants between August 2019 and August 2022 on behalf of building owners in California, Colorado, Utah and Nevada alone.
In many instances, the suit claimed, Greystar advertised a deceptively low rental price – providing no information about many fees and the true monthly costs until after tenants paid hundreds of dollars in application fees and deposits.
Greystar did not admit wrongdoing in the case.
In a press release addressing the settlement, Greystar said its practice of advertising “base rent” to potential residents, and then adding mandatory fees, was a “longstanding, industrywide practice”.
The settlement followed others related to fees.
In 2022, the company agreed to pay $4.5m to resolve a class action in federal court in North Carolina that alleged the company charged illegal eviction fees.
Last year, the company agreed to pay more than $1.4m to settle allegations by the US Department of Justice that it had illegally charged early termination fees to American service members who moved because of military orders.
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Greystar did not admit wrongdoing in either settlement.
Fees charged at properties operated by Greystar have also spurred legislation.
Colorado enacted a new law in 2025, “Letty’s Act”, after Greystar billed grieving family members thousands of dollars in penalty fees when their matriarch, 75-year-old Leticia Farrer, died.
Her family said Greystar claimed Farrer, who was living with dementia, had broken her lease by dying.
The rental contract – for an apartment complex for senior residents run by Greystar in Loveland, Colorado – said renters could not be released early from their leases “for any reason”, including “bad health or death”.
After state and national publicity, Greystar rescinded the fees.
The law, which took effect last September, forbids landlords from charging early termination penalties when a lease ends due to a tenant’s death.
Greystar did not respond to the Guardian’s questions about the Farrer case.
The company now discloses dozens of fees in apartment listings nationwide, including some that court claims have alleged it had hidden from potential tenants.
Marketing experts told the Guardian that these fee disclosures are confusing and incomplete and make it difficult for would-be renters to comparison-shop and know how much their housing will cost.
“It doesn’t seem to me that there’s any way for a consumer to know what their costs are actually going to be,” Vicki Morwitz, a professor of business and marketing at Columbia University, said.
Cost-burdened
As Cosey, the customer-service worker in Nevada, scouted apartments in Las Vegas in the summer of 2023, she hoped to find something for about $1,400 a month in rent.
She found a two-bedroom for $1,598 a month at Glo, the Greystar-managed property.
At a time when it was becoming increasingly difficult to find affordable housing in Vegas and nationwide, she figured it was OK to stretch a little to find a place that suited her.
Soon after Cosey moved in, an injury landed her on long-term disability, and her assistance checks began to arrive two weeks after rent was due, according to court documents.
In November, monthly fees began piling up, including charges for water, sewer and trash services.
She was also charged two penalty fees: a 5% late fee – $79.90 to start – and $75 in legal fees, her payment ledger shows.
That month, Greystar billed Cosey $1,922.70 – $324.70 above the monthly rent she had signed up for.
Cosey objected to the legal fees.
But Greystar staff told her, according to her lawsuit, that attorney fees were part of her rent and refused to accept any monthly payment that didn’t include them.
So Cosey stopped paying.
“I thought that it would force the issue into the court, and that when I went to court, the judge would see that I did not owe the amount that they claimed that I owed,” she said.
Eviction papers arrived, and then a court date, where she represented herself and lost.
Cosey was evicted and charged $3,228 for terminating her lease early.
She began couch-surfing and staying in hotels with the help of family and friends before moving back in with her disabled mother in Los Angeles.
The lawsuit filed in state court in Nevada that bears her name alleges Greystar violated state law by charging her attorney fees without a court order and failed to adequately disclose her utility costs.
It claims the company also failed to accommodate her disability by charging late fees for assistance checks that were issued mid-month and used money intended for rent for fees, including payments from a state rental assistance program.
For some tenants, even making payment on the first of the month can come with additional costs.
Several Greystar leases reviewed for this story indicate that tenants cannot pay their bills through personal checks.
Instead, these leases require tenants to either use an online portal, where they are charged processing or administrative fees, or pay with a cashier’s check, which costs both time and money.
In multiple Greystar apartment listings that reference a “payment services” fee, the charge is not included in the total monthly leasing price.
Greystar did not directly address questions regarding “pay to pay” fees.
It also didn’t answer questions about several other fees, including variable refrigerant flow and solar rebill fees as well as extra charges assessed at some Greystar-run properties to pay for amenities that are key selling points in advertisements.
A recent Greystar listing for an apartment complex in Weehawken, New Jersey, disclosed a monthly “lifestyle fee” of $95 per unit to cover, among other things, a spin room and picnic tables.
At some properties managed by Greystar, the FTC/Colorado lawsuit claimed, the company bundled together several hidden fees and referred to them as lifestyle, amenity or community fees.
The complex – which describes itself as a “modern paradise” – advertises 15 different potential monthly prices for a two-bedroom apartment: five “base rents” ranging from $2,469 to $2,505 per month, five different complete total monthly leasing prices and five different “pro-rated” total leasing prices for move-ins that happen after the first of the first month.
Those “total” prices include seven mandatory fixed fees, but not the six mandatory variable or usage-based fees.
A recent Guardian check of Greystar apartment listings in 42 states showed that most added between five and 11 mandatory fees on top of monthly “base rent”.
Greystar did not respond directly to questions about its current listings format or about fees charged at Addison Grove.
In a statement, the company highlighted its efforts to “encourage consumers to educate themselves”, such as offering online cost calculators that roll fixed fees into advertised total monthly leasing prices.
It also pointed to a blogpost on its main website that gives cost estimates for five usage-based charges and suggests that mandatory water, sewer and electricity charges could increase a tenant’s costs by as much as $247 a month.
Information overload
Two experts who study how consumers respond to prices said Greystar’s listings make it difficult for renters to comparison-shop and know how much their housing will cost.
The web of fees and other variables – and the lack of price information on many charges – likely produces information overload for many renters, according to Jeffrey Carpenter, a behavioral economist at Middlebury College.
“You’ve got all these numbers that you have to add and subtract, and it’s hard to keep track of them and it’s hard to know which ones that you can avoid or you can’t avoid, or how much is this actually going to cost me a month,” Carpenter said.
“What happens is people’s eyes just glaze over and they fixate on that base rent.”
Morwitz, the Columbia University professor, said Greystar’s disclosure of numerous fees is “a step in the right direction”.
But she said it is challenging for consumers when price disclosures are complex and many fees are listed as variable or usage-based.
Carpenter and Morwitz, who both looked at Greystar’s price disclosure format at the request of the Guardian, said that the clearest and most helpful setup for consumers would be to simply include mandatory fees in the rent.
Fewer variables.
Less math and less confusion.
Zillow’s research shows that 76% of renters across the US believe fees should be included in rents instead of being charged separately.
“Just put it all in one,” Zach Jackson, an Addison Grove tenant, said.
Another Addison Grove tenant, who said he was a salesperson and business owner, said he wasn’t bothered by the fees the complex charges.
“I love to live here,” he said.
“It’s a very nice place.”
Jackson, a 29-year-old architectural drafter, had a different view.
When a reporter approached him in Addison Grove’s parking lot in April, Jackson said he believed he was “getting overcharged on a bunch of miscellaneous fees” – including getting “double- and triple-charged” for trash disposal.
He said he also noticed recently that he was being billed for community amenities – which appeared to him to be a “brand-new fee that came out of nowhere”.
Today, 82% of renters aged 18 to 29 – Jackson’s generation – report paying at least one fee on top of rent, making fees more common for gen Z than any other generation, according to Zillow.
Jackson’s frustration over fees played a role, he said, in his plan to move away from Greystar and find an apartment elsewhere.
“I’m out in August,” he said.
That would put him apartment hunting in a market, Dallas-Fort Worth, where Greystar manages nearly 60,000 units – and properties operated by many of its biggest competitors also charge bundles of upfront and monthly fees.
George Joseph contributed reporting
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