FTC Seeks Comment on Potential Rule to Address Unfair or Deceptive Rental Housing Fee Practices

By Timothy A. Butler & Caitlin Sophy-Croley on March 18, 2026

Posted in Featured, FTC, President Trump's Administration

On March 12, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) seeking public comment on a proposed rulemaking to address potential unfair or deceptive fee practices in connection with rental housing.

“Rental pricing practices that are neither clear nor transparent undermine competition and harm consumers,” said Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a press release announcing the ANPRM. “The Trump-Vance FTC is focused on addressing unlawful business conduct that obscures the actual cost of housing and undermines price competition.”

This development demonstrates that the FTC remains focused on so-called “junk fees,” following its issuance of the Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, sometimes called the “Junk Fees Rule,” which became effective on May 12, 2025, as we noted in an earlier GT Alert.

Rental Housing Fee Practices

In its press release announcing the ANPRM, the FTC said that the “failure to advertise the true total rent limits consumers’ ability to make informed financial decisions, increasing their search costs and exposing them to other negative monetary consequences when they take on more rent than they can afford.”

Consistent with those concerns, the ANPRM seeks public comment, including data, evidence, analyses and arguments, on whether a rule is needed to prevent unfair or deceptive fee practices in connection with rental housing. The FTC request for public comment focuses on five areas of concern:

Total Rent. Do rental housing providers fail to clearly and conspicuously disclose or misrepresent the true total rent for a unit or property including all mandatory fees or charges?
Fees and Charges. Do rental housing providers fail to clearly and conspicuously disclose or misrepresent the nature, purpose, amount, refundability, optionality and recurrence of fees or charges?
Application Fees. What practices do rental housing providers engage in relating to application fees that harm consumers?
Security Deposits. What practices do rental housing providers engage in relating to security deposits that harm consumers?
Billing Issues. What practices do rental housing providers engage in relating to billing that harm consumers?
Consumer Choice. What practices do rental housing providers engage in that harm consumers by impeding consumer choice?

Once the ANPRM is published in the Federal Register, the public will have 30 days to submit comments.

Takeaways

State and federal consumer protection agencies remain focused on so-called “junk fees,” with new investigations and rulemaking opening at a regular clip. Indeed, a day before it issued the ANPRM, the FTC announced that it would send checks totaling almost $50 million to almost 500,000 affected consumers, pursuant to its September 2024 settlement with a rental-housing industry participant regarding alleged unfair and deceptive fees practices.

Given this continued focus, businesses, including financial services firm offering home or apartment rental management solutions, should watch for “junk-fee” related developments at both the state and federal levels and may wish to fine-tune their compliance programs in light of those developments.

We have provided ongoing analysis of junk-fee-related developments, including the developments addressed in our prior client alerts and blog posts: