In any situation, you should know your rights. When you’re renting an apartment, the details of their existence may be less clear-cut. The FTC turned a lawsuit it filed against one of the largest apartment building owners in the U.S. into a business lesson for other landlords. And that, in turn, offers important information to renters.
The Background
The Federal Trade Commission settled a lawsuit it and the State of Colorado had jointly filed in January 2025 against Greystar, a company that manages $300 billion of real estate in more than 260 markets across the U.S., UK, Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific. That includes 800,000 residential rental units.
“According to the complaint filed by the FTC and Colorado, these hidden fees have cost consumers living in Greystar properties hundreds of millions of dollars since at least 2019, and consumers often have not discovered the fees until after they have signed a lease or moved in,” the FTC wrote.
According to the agency, the result was that the company was “deceptively advertising low monthly rents” and adding hundreds of dollars of “hidden junk fees” for such things as package delivery, trash pick-up, and technology bundles. Potential tenants allegedly wouldn’t learn about them until using the application portal or filling out an inquiry form that required disclosure of personal information.
Greystar Responds
“The agreement contains no admission of wrongdoing, and Greystar continues to maintain, as it has from the start of this matter, that its advertising has always been transparent, fair, and fully consistent with the longstanding industrywide practice of advertising base rent to potential residents,” the company wrote in a blog post about the agreement.
The post added: “Greystar has long championed transparency in the rental housing industry. In recent years, Greystar has launched industry-leading transparent pricing initiatives and digital tools and encouraged technology partners to strengthen their own capabilities.”
FTC’s ‘Lessons’ For Landlords, And For Renters
The FTC created a document titled, “Are you managing a rental property? Lessons from the FTC’s lawsuit against Greystar.”
In a sense, the agency leveraged the news but ultimately didn’t need to. They made three points for all landlords:
- Advertising rental prices without mandatory charges are illegal. “Consumers shouldn’t have to wait until they sign a lease or get their first month’s bill to learn what it will actually cost to live in a rental,” they wrote.
- Landlords or property managers must ensure that their websites and advertisements reflect full pricing. That includes any third parties that participate in promoting a property, which must accurately disclose pricing.
- The FTC is reviewing the rental housing market and “will not hesitate to take action against landlords taking advantage of Americans’ housing needs by hiding mandatory fees.”
People looking to rent a property should also pay attention and know that no matter where in the U.S. they are, all property representatives are equally legally responsible to disclose the full price.
Challenging a property owner or manager can be an uncomfortable experience. However, if there isn’t another viable choice of housing, you could go through the submission process and send an anonymous contact to the FTC and let them investigate the claim.
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