'Extremely overwhelmed': apartment renters face rising tide of fees

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.