APARTMENT ADVOCATE
NATIONAL APARTMENT ASSOCIATION
Fee Transparency Mandates By The Numbers
NAA’ s perspective on the policy landscape nationally
BY EMILY HOWARD
As 2025 draws to a close, policymakers at all levels of government prioritized solutions to address housing affordability for renters this year. States and localities remain a hotbed for activity, focusing much attention on regulating rent housing costs and prescribing how and when fees and other charges associated with tenancy are disclosed to renters.
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. They do not reflect the ever-rising costs to own and operate rental housing and provide a quality housing experience to renters.
NAA’ s legislative tracker shows that fee transparency mandates are the leading fee regulation trend for 2025. Across the nation, 30 states do not impose any requirements for fee disclosure; however:
• 10 states and Washington, D. C. have laws on the books that requires complete disclosure of all fees, meaning that all possible fees must be itemized, and their price be listed prior to lease-signing;
• 4 states require the disclosure of the“ total price” of fees, meaning that fees must be combined with rent into a single maximum price when advertising the unit;
• 2 states require disclosure of mandatory fees but not optional ones;
• 2 states require disclosure of application fees; and
• 1 state requires disclosure of utility fees.
STATE OUTLOOK
Although numerous bills have failed this year, the fee disclosure laws listed below have either already been enacted or are scheduled to become effective in 2026:
• Colorado: Effective January 1, 2026, Colorado HB 25-1090 prohibits housing providers from offering, displaying or advertising housing costs as a single number without separating the total price into separate fees, charges or amounts. The total price also must be disclosed more prominently than other pricing information. According to the new law, a housing provider may not assess a fee to cover the costs for maintenance of common areas. They also may not require a resident to pay a markup or fee for a third-party service, " except that a written rental agreement may include a provision that requires a tenant to pay either www. aamdhq. org TRENDS JANUARY 2026 | 37