Dive Brief:
- The Seattle City Council on Wednesday passed a ban on rental “junk fees,” including administrative service charges, pet rent and package fees, according to an Aug. 12 announcement from Mayor Katie Wilson’s office. The legislation passed by an 8-0 vote.
- The ordinance also requires clear, upfront pricing for tenants, expands investigative authority and strengthens enforcement, allowing the City Attorney’s Office to take a violating landlord to court and recover three times the amount of the illegal fees.
- The measure will make Seattle’s rental market “more transparent and affordable,” said Councilmember Dionne Foster, who shepherded the effort as the chair of the Housing, Arts, and Civil Rights committee. Rental fee practices are increasingly coming under scrutiny, and a growing number of localities now require disclosure up front.
Dive Insight:
There is no market incentive to advertise the full price of an apartment, and rental fees are often not disclosed up front, according to the ordinance. That means a renter may not learn about all the mandatory charges attached to their housing until lease signing, after they have already paid nonrefundable application and move-in fees.
“Tenants are left to choose between paying more than they expected or walking away and losing the time and money they invested,” according to the ordinance.
Per the new law, any rental agreement or renewal of a rental agreement entered into after July 1, 2027, must disclose:
- The monthly rent of the dwelling unit;
- The amounts and duration of any discounts or concessions applied;
- All utilities for which the tenant is responsible and utilities included in the monthly rent;
- The amounts of all mandatory and optional fees, including variable fees; and
- The total monthly cost to be paid by the tenant.
The ordinance also lays out what fees landlords can charge, and how much.
Housing affordability is a critical issue in Seattle: CoStar and BERK analysis found that, between 2012 and 2022, average monthly rents rose 32% in the city, even after adjusting for inflation, according to the ordinance. At the end of July, the Seattle City Council also eliminated an environmental review appeals process that proponents say caused unnecessary delays to housing development in the city.
There is a growing effort to legislate rental fees, from the local to the national level.
In the 2025 legislative session, the National Apartment Association tracked 140 fee transparency-related bills, as well as six local proposals. The NAA said, “These efforts ignore communications that occur throughout the leasing process and disclosures in lease documents, and often lose sight of the rationale for assessing fees and other charges.”
For example, in April, the attorney general for Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit against Mid-America Apartment Communities and its subsidiaries, Mid-America Apartments LP and Post 1499 Massachusetts LLC, for allegedly charging junk fees and hiding the true cost of rent from prospective tenants.
The Federal Trade Commission is also focused on the discrepancy between advertised rent and the total amounts renters actually pay once mandatory charges are added. In March, the agency announced that it is seeking public input on a potential rule to “address unfair or deceptive acts or practices relating to advertised rent and other fees and charges in the rental housing industry.”
Per the FTC, a rule on these practices would allow the agency to seek civil penalties against violators and more easily obtain redress for harmed consumers.
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