US renters call for action to combat surge of ‘take it or leave it’ apartment fees

Across the US, many renters are calling for national action to stem add-on charges that spike their housing costs and increase their risk of eviction. “The rental housing market is one where consumers have little power,” Farah Momin, a renter in Seattle, 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 said she has “experienced firsthand the confusion, financial strain and sense of powerlessness that rental junk fees create” – offered her remarks as one of hundreds of tenants, activists and industry officials who have weighed in on the FTC’s new rulemaking process for developing regulations on rental housing fees. Of 471 comments available for public download, nearly 400 explicitly supported regulation or listed problems with 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. “Restrictions on reasonable fees create practical barriers, inflate base housing costs, and reduce access to valued resident services,” leading industry groups said in a joint statement to the FTC. …