The administration is urging states to more heavily regulate application fees, administrative fees, and other often hidden costs imposed on renters.

The Biden administration is calling on states to issue more regulations around so-called “junk fees” for renters, reports Andrew Keshner in MarketWatch. “These costs, which often come as a surprise, include application fees, administrative fees, parking fees, and even pet fees.”
According to Keshner, “As part of the anti-junk fee campaign, several states issued new rules around these fees, and Zillow, the online real-estate marketplace, introduced a ‘cost of renting summary’ that runs through all the fees a renter can expect to pay.”
But “Transparency surrounding these fees is not the same as removing them, rental housing advocates say.” Disclosures, while a step forward, “don’t do anything to lessen or eliminate the fees.” Ariel Nelson, a staff attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, says many of the mechanisms used by landlords are inherently problematic. “Credit checks and wide-ranging tenant screening services can contain inaccuracies, Nelson said. Tenant-screening reports can unfairly reveal a person’s entanglements with the criminal justice system, including an arrest that resulted in a case being dismissed, she noted.”
A U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development study found that Black, Hispanic, and Asian-American renters are “much more likely” to be charged application fees than white renters, Keshner adds.
FULL STORY: White House wants to expose ‘junk fees’ imposed on renters — but erasing them will be a tougher task

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