Unsurprising that this article is about Greystar, they really are a blight. When I was searching for apartments last year, Greystar apartments were really attractive in my city since they were...
Unsurprising that this article is about Greystar, they really are a blight. When I was searching for apartments last year, Greystar apartments were really attractive in my city since they were cheaper than other apartments, while offering most if not all the modern amenities one would want. However, I've never heard of a single positive experience from anyone renting with them, so I ended up passing on them and went with a leasing company that only operates within my state. I'm glad I did, it's one of those agencies that lets you rent out your apartment without having to worry about the day-to-day of your lessee. I've had a really positive experience so far, no weird or hidden fees, there were more amenities to the apartment than the listing mentioned (such as Wi-Fi included in rent, dishwasher in apartment, building rooftop, etc.), and maintenance has been pain free.
We rent from a local agency that charges payment processing fees, and I strongly feel that any form of pay-to-pay should be illegal. The rent price should be all inclusive. I think all other...
We rent from a local agency that charges payment processing fees, and I strongly feel that any form of pay-to-pay should be illegal. The rent price should be all inclusive. I think all other businesses should be using what-you-see-is-what-you-pay; to do otherwise is customer-hostile.
Interesting that they charge you a payment processing fee. My agency does charge you a payment processing fee but only if you pay via credit card and not via your bank account. The only other fee...
Interesting that they charge you a payment processing fee. My agency does charge you a payment processing fee but only if you pay via credit card and not via your bank account. The only other fee I can think of that I've been charged was a maintenance fee once when my maintenance request required some actual work.
Without doxxing myself, my family rented from Greystar and had zero complaints. Our rent and fees were reasonable. Maintenance issues were promptly addressed. Really not much to note.
Without doxxing myself, my family rented from Greystar and had zero complaints. Our rent and fees were reasonable. Maintenance issues were promptly addressed. Really not much to note.
I rented a house between January and July. $100 non-refundable application fee. They tacked on a mandatory $45/mo 'resident convienience package' which allegedly provided renters insurance, access...
I rented a house between January and July. $100 non-refundable application fee.
They tacked on a mandatory $45/mo 'resident convienience package' which allegedly provided renters insurance, access to the 'maintainence portal', the ability to schedule a recurring ACH transfer, and they would send me a hvac air filter once a quarter.
The maintaince portal was, per usual, a void where they could just perpetually ignore your request if it's not legally mandated. Quite hilariously, when I go to this random website about tenant rights, the link to the PA AG's Tenant Rights page 404s.
PA has laws on the books which read like 'You have these rights as a tenant, unless your lease says otherwise.' Needless to say every lease has that line in it and no landlord will rent to you if you strike it out.
The convenience package BS is one of the most infuriating I've dealt with. We have it currently in my place. We got it knocked down to $29 because we got our own renters insurance (I will never...
The convenience package BS is one of the most infuriating I've dealt with. We have it currently in my place. We got it knocked down to $29 because we got our own renters insurance (I will never use insurance supplied by the landlord or management company), but we're still paying for HVAC filter changes despite the condo we rent using hot water baseboard heat, so no filters present at all. They tried to claim it would cover replacement media for the whole unit swamp cooler; however, that's legally the landlords responsibility anyways since it's not accessible from our unit, so that's out.
The only "benefit" we get is reporting our rent payments to credit agencies, but neither I nor my partner have seen any sort of credit score change thanks to that "service". Somehow this BS is exempt from the CO fees rules around rentals too.
It sucks that even trying to rent from an individual private landlord, more often than not, still necessitates dealing with whatever cheap and scummy management company they hire, who thus far behave just as shittily as the large corporate landlords I've dealt with in the past. Frankly, I don't think our landlord gets a fair deal out of it either, as the management she uses takes a 9% cut of our monthly rent as payment.
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.
In Colorado, an April 2025 study by the Urban Institute and Denver’s Community Economic Defense Project found that fees charged at properties operated by Greystar raised tenants’ monthly bills by an average of nearly 20%. Fees tied to two other major property managers raised their tenants’ monthly costs by roughly 15% to 18%, the researchers found.
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.
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 company’s listings for the Standard Assembly Apartments in Nashville – which offer a pool with a “sun shelf” – discloses amenity fees ranging from $140 to $190 a month.
The lease that Collins, the former Greystar tenant in Colorado, signed with her previous landlord included 23 different fees. The new lease she signed after Greystar took over as manager on behalf of a new landlord listed 35. Among them were a pest control fee that doubled from $2 to $4 a month and a new fee for “stormwater” based on building-wide usage divided among “rentable and occupied units”.
Collins stayed on under Greystar for 30 months, sometimes paying more than $100 in fees a month – including a $25 fee for “valet waste”, a mandatory service that requires tenants to leave their garbage in front of their door for staff to collect.
Collins didn’t want to pay for valet trash disposal. She was on the second floor and there was a dumpster nearby. “All I had to do was walk down the stairs and throw my garbage away,” she said. When she complained to management, Collins said, staff refused to let her opt out.
Months later, Greystar doubled her rent mid-lease and began threatening to evict her, her lawsuit says.
At least with tipping (even forced tipping), your money stays local, as it goes to your server/back of the house staff. It still sucks, but at least I know that it's keeping the staff's bills...
At least with tipping (even forced tipping), your money stays local, as it goes to your server/back of the house staff. It still sucks, but at least I know that it's keeping the staff's bills paid/food on the table. (Generally.... As long as their employer isn't stealing from their tips)
But fees like this are simply wealth extraction from the most vulnerable. The money isn't staying local. It's being extracted from your community and being sent to wall street/executives on the other side of the nation/world.
Reading comments here makes me feel incredibly lucky with the experience I've had since beginning renting again recently. There was an application fee but it was reasonable - $25 - and while on...
Reading comments here makes me feel incredibly lucky with the experience I've had since beginning renting again recently.
There was an application fee but it was reasonable - $25 - and while on paper they asked for first and last months rent up front, plus a months rent security deposit, I was able to get it down to half that. No other fees except a $1 convenience fee through their portal for payment. I also have the landlords direct phone numbers and email.
These are local agents though, not a big corporation. I have an apartment on my towns main street, great view and amenities nearby. The rent is reasonable and utilities modest. I've already had issues come up and a major one (water heater broke within a month of moving in) that was fixed within a day with constant updates about progress.
I really should count my blessings. I was very worried about renting again.
Even in a high CoL and in demand area here the landlords are usually at least sort of reasonable. Though I did have the occasional encounters of we'll let you control the thermostat if you seem...
Even in a high CoL and in demand area here the landlords are usually at least sort of reasonable. Though I did have the occasional encounters of we'll let you control the thermostat if you seem reasonable or mandatory arbitration at probably a relative.
Other than utilities and realtor commision the most I've seen in additional charges is occasionally single line common area maintenance or a laundry usage fee.
This seems similar to another invention america has of mandatory "tip". If it is mandatory/effectively mandatory it is not tip/fee but random altering of the deal after buy in from one of the parties.
Unsurprising that this article is about Greystar, they really are a blight. When I was searching for apartments last year, Greystar apartments were really attractive in my city since they were cheaper than other apartments, while offering most if not all the modern amenities one would want. However, I've never heard of a single positive experience from anyone renting with them, so I ended up passing on them and went with a leasing company that only operates within my state. I'm glad I did, it's one of those agencies that lets you rent out your apartment without having to worry about the day-to-day of your lessee. I've had a really positive experience so far, no weird or hidden fees, there were more amenities to the apartment than the listing mentioned (such as Wi-Fi included in rent, dishwasher in apartment, building rooftop, etc.), and maintenance has been pain free.
We rent from a local agency that charges payment processing fees, and I strongly feel that any form of pay-to-pay should be illegal. The rent price should be all inclusive. I think all other businesses should be using what-you-see-is-what-you-pay; to do otherwise is customer-hostile.
Interesting that they charge you a payment processing fee. My agency does charge you a payment processing fee but only if you pay via credit card and not via your bank account. The only other fee I can think of that I've been charged was a maintenance fee once when my maintenance request required some actual work.
Without doxxing myself, my family rented from Greystar and had zero complaints. Our rent and fees were reasonable. Maintenance issues were promptly addressed. Really not much to note.
I rented a house between January and July. $100 non-refundable application fee.
They tacked on a mandatory $45/mo 'resident convienience package' which allegedly provided renters insurance, access to the 'maintainence portal', the ability to schedule a recurring ACH transfer, and they would send me a hvac air filter once a quarter.
The maintaince portal was, per usual, a void where they could just perpetually ignore your request if it's not legally mandated. Quite hilariously, when I go to this random website about tenant rights, the link to the PA AG's Tenant Rights page 404s.
PA has laws on the books which read like 'You have these rights as a tenant, unless your lease says otherwise.' Needless to say every lease has that line in it and no landlord will rent to you if you strike it out.
The convenience package BS is one of the most infuriating I've dealt with. We have it currently in my place. We got it knocked down to $29 because we got our own renters insurance (I will never use insurance supplied by the landlord or management company), but we're still paying for HVAC filter changes despite the condo we rent using hot water baseboard heat, so no filters present at all. They tried to claim it would cover replacement media for the whole unit swamp cooler; however, that's legally the landlords responsibility anyways since it's not accessible from our unit, so that's out.
The only "benefit" we get is reporting our rent payments to credit agencies, but neither I nor my partner have seen any sort of credit score change thanks to that "service". Somehow this BS is exempt from the CO fees rules around rentals too.
It sucks that even trying to rent from an individual private landlord, more often than not, still necessitates dealing with whatever cheap and scummy management company they hire, who thus far behave just as shittily as the large corporate landlords I've dealt with in the past. Frankly, I don't think our landlord gets a fair deal out of it either, as the management she uses takes a 9% cut of our monthly rent as payment.
As a person outside of USA I have impression that it's similar to forced tipping?
At least with tipping (even forced tipping), your money stays local, as it goes to your server/back of the house staff. It still sucks, but at least I know that it's keeping the staff's bills paid/food on the table. (Generally.... As long as their employer isn't stealing from their tips)
But fees like this are simply wealth extraction from the most vulnerable. The money isn't staying local. It's being extracted from your community and being sent to wall street/executives on the other side of the nation/world.
Reading comments here makes me feel incredibly lucky with the experience I've had since beginning renting again recently.
There was an application fee but it was reasonable - $25 - and while on paper they asked for first and last months rent up front, plus a months rent security deposit, I was able to get it down to half that. No other fees except a $1 convenience fee through their portal for payment. I also have the landlords direct phone numbers and email.
These are local agents though, not a big corporation. I have an apartment on my towns main street, great view and amenities nearby. The rent is reasonable and utilities modest. I've already had issues come up and a major one (water heater broke within a month of moving in) that was fixed within a day with constant updates about progress.
I really should count my blessings. I was very worried about renting again.
Even in a high CoL and in demand area here the landlords are usually at least sort of reasonable. Though I did have the occasional encounters of we'll let you control the thermostat if you seem reasonable or mandatory arbitration at probably a relative.
Other than utilities and realtor commision the most I've seen in additional charges is occasionally single line common area maintenance or a laundry usage fee.
This seems similar to another invention america has of mandatory "tip". If it is mandatory/effectively mandatory it is not tip/fee but random altering of the deal after buy in from one of the parties.