There were no junk fees in my lease contract the last time I rented an apartment in Washington State 12 years ago, but Private Equity has a greater presence in the rental market today. Leases are written to make every time you move sideways a “billing opportunity”. It’s just like health care now. We really need some antitrust enforcement.
The local officials who think junk fees are keeping monthly rental rates low are the ones bought & paid for by the property developers.
intercst
Since they have “proof” (LOL) junk fees keep rental rate low, raise the junk fees CHARGED TO LANDLORDS and drive rental rates even lower.
This is ridiculous and I agree that junk fees should be regulated in WA State as in Oregon. That being said, WA State has very strong tenant protection laws that make it difficult and expensive for a landlord to evict a tenant. I have a nice little cabin on my property that sits empty because I don’t want the hassle of dealing with tenants who might be impossible to evict. This while my town has a severe affordable housing shortage.
Wendy
Here in Spain, despite acute housing shortages, many homes sit vacant for years because ancient customary laws allow inheritors to skip estate taxes if they successfully pretend to not have known of their inheritance for five years (it is complicated and stupid and corrupt and normal). Also, we cannot rent out the house we own in a suddenly hot market because tenants have a right to tenancy for five years if they jump through certain now waaay to easy hoops.
d fb