Summary
The Fees are Fraud Coalition and CDP released these new findings about how landlords are using non-rent fees—charges added to monthly rent statements—as a way to push residents out of rent-stabilized apartments.
The new data indicate that non-rent fees are pervasive, have a real economic impact on tenants, and are often unclear or hard to understand. Research demonstrates that fees are often challenged successfully in court, but that filing overcharge complaints is time-and resource-intensive, and systemic reform is needed.
This work expands the findings of CDP and CASA’s September 2013 report, “The Burden of Fees: How Affordable Housing is Made Unaffordable,” which showed the extent to which non-rent fees were increasing the rent burdens of rent-stabilized tenants in the Bronx.
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The full report addendum can be found here