How to Audit Your Fee Schedule for Regulatory Risk

Fee transparency in rental housing has become a regulatory priority at both the federal and state level. The FTC has brought enforcement actions against major rental housing providers and, in March 2026, launched a formal rulemaking proceeding to explore whether a federal rule is needed to address unfair or deceptive fee practices across the rental housing industry. That rulemaking, which covers fee practices throughout the entire lease lifecycle from application to move-out, has already completed its initial comment period. Class action litigation challenging fee practices is active in multiple states. And a growing number of state legislatures have enacted laws requiring all-in pricing or detailed fee disclosure before a prospect applies.

For multifamily operators, this is a good time to take a fresh look at your fee schedule and make sure your disclosure practices align with current requirements.

The Legislative Landscape

The most concrete development is the wave of state legislation. Over the past several years, states have moved from general consumer protection principles to specific, prescriptive requirements around how rental fees are disclosed and when. The pace of adoption is increasing:

• Utah (Effective May 2021): Requires a written good-faith estimate of rent plus all fixed non-rent expenses before collecting application fees.
• Minnesota (Effective January 2024): Requires all nonoptional fees to appear alongside rent in listings and on the first page of the lease.
• California (Effective July 2024): Prohibits "drip pricing," meaning advertised rental prices must include mandatory fees.
• Maine (Effective January 2025): Requires disclosure of the total cost, including mandatory and optional recurring fees, before lease signing.
• New York City (Effective June 2025): The FARE Act requires mandatory fees to be disclosed and itemized before lease signing.
• New Mexico (Effective June 2025): Requires plain-language disclosure of all rental agreement costs in rental listings.
• Virginia (Effective July 2025): Requires the first page of the lease to itemize rent, deposits, and fees. Fees not listed generally cannot be charged.
• Massachusetts (Effective September 2025): Requires total pricing, including mandatory fees, at the outset of the leasing process. Optional fees must be clearly labeled with opt-out instructions.
• Nevada (Effective October 2025): Requires total pricing, including mandatory fees, wherever rent is advertised. Operators generally may not charge more than the advertised amount.
• Connecticut (Effective October 2025): Requires advertised rent to include periodic mandatory costs and mandates a standardized rental summary as the first page of the lease beginning in April 2026.
• Colorado (Effective January 2026): Requires the total monthly price to be the most prominent advertised figure, limits administrative markups on utilities, and generally prohibits increasing mandatory fees by more than 2% during a 12-month lease.

Additional legislation is pending in several states, and the FTC's rulemaking could establish a national baseline. Operators with properties in multiple states face an increasingly complex set of requirements that vary by jurisdiction.

What to Look For in a Fee Audit

Fee schedules at most properties were built over time, with charges added by different teams responding to different business needs. A periodic review is a reasonable step to confirm that your current practices align with current law. Three areas are worth evaluating:

1. Disclosure practices

The central question in most fee transparency laws is whether your advertised price accurately reflects what the resident will be required to pay. If mandatory charges are excluded from the headline rent number, the gap between the advertised price and the actual monthly obligation may not meet current disclosure standards in jurisdictions that require all-in pricing.

What to review: Identify every fee your properties charge and categorize each as mandatory fixed, mandatory variable (e.g., usage-based utilities), or optional. Compare your advertised price against the total of mandatory fixed charges. Where there is a gap, evaluate whether your disclosure approach satisfies the requirements of the applicable jurisdiction.

2. Permissibility by jurisdiction

Not every fee is permissible in every state. Requirements vary around charges like early termination fees, administrative fees for rent payments, and fees that pass through the cost of services the landlord may be legally obligated to provide. A fee that is standard practice in one market may create exposure in another.

What to review: For each fee, confirm it is permitted under the law of every jurisdiction where you charge it. Fees that shift maintenance or service costs to residents, penalty fees, and charges with no clearly identified service merit particular attention.

3. Reasonableness

Even when a fee is properly disclosed and legally permissible, the relationship between what is charged and the cost of the underlying service is relevant. Some of the class action litigation in this area has focused on the gap between the fee amount and the actual cost of the service provided.

What to review: For fees tied to a specific service (pest control, trash, billing administration), consider whether the amount charged is reasonably related to what the service costs.

How Entrata Supports Fee Transparency

Entrata has invested in fee transparency tools since 2018, and the platform continues to evolve as legislation and market expectations develop. The capabilities described below are designed to give operators flexibility to configure disclosure practices that align with the requirements of each jurisdiction where they operate.

Note: Entrata's fee transparency tools provide configurable settings that operators can use as part of their disclosure practices. Operators should work with their legal counsel to confirm that their specific configurations meet applicable legal requirements.

Configurable advertised pricing

At the property level, operators can define what is included in advertised rent: base rent only, base rent plus all recurring charges, or a custom selection of charge codes. This allows properties in jurisdictions with all-in pricing requirements to include all mandatory recurring charges in the headline number, while properties in other jurisdictions can be configured according to local rules.

Entrata also offers a comprehensive pricing assertion feature. When enabled, the system checks for required charges that are not included in the advertised price and flags them so operators can review and update their configuration before listings go live.

Fee classification and disclosure

Operators control which fees are disclosed to prospects and applicants. Each fee can be classified as required, optional, or situational, with timing labels (one-time, recurring) and plain-language descriptions. This information appears on ProspectPortal, in ILS feeds, and in the cost estimation calculator, giving prospects visibility into their expected costs before they apply.

Third-party fee visibility

Charges from third-party providers (utilities, internet, insurance) that the property does not collect can be configured and disclosed in the rent calculator, helping prospects understand costs beyond what the property itself charges.

Portfolio-level management

Fee transparency settings, including rent pricing configuration, fee disclosure selections, and custom third-party fees, can be cloned across multiple properties. Operators with portfolios spanning multiple states can set up jurisdiction-specific configurations and apply them at scale.

Cost estimation calculator

The ProspectPortal cost estimation calculator lets prospects model their total monthly costs, including base rent, mandatory fees, optional add-ons (parking, storage, pets), and third-party charges. First released in October 2023, the calculator has been enhanced through 2025 to support a broader range of charge types and provide more detailed breakdowns.

Data consistency across channels

All fee data is available to ILS platforms and API partners, helping ensure that the pricing displayed on third-party listing sites reflects the operator's configured disclosure. Comprehensive pricing assertions are transmitted in the feed so listing partners can identify all-in prices.

Moving Forward

Fee transparency is an area where the regulatory environment is evolving quickly. The FTC's active rulemaking, the growing body of state legislation, and private litigation are all contributing to higher expectations around how rental costs are communicated to prospective residents.

A periodic audit of your fee schedule, focused on disclosure practices, jurisdictional permissibility, and reasonableness, is a practical step that helps you stay current. Entrata's fee transparency tools are designed to support that effort by giving operators configurable, jurisdiction-aware disclosure capabilities across their leasing channels. We recommend working with your legal counsel to confirm that your specific fee configurations are appropriate for the jurisdictions where you operate.