Sponsors (2)
The bill provides meaningful consumer protections—reducing upfront fees, capping late fees, protecting renters' credit, and increasing transparency—while shifting compliance costs and revenue impacts onto landlords and regulators, which may lead to higher rents, administrative burdens, and enforcement uncertainty.
Renters (especially low-income households) pay lower up-front and late-payment costs because application/screening fees are banned, late fees are capped at under 3% of monthly rent, and landlords cannot charge late fees until at least 15 days after rent is due.
Renters' credit and future housing access are better protected because unpaid 'junk fees' cannot be reported to consumer credit bureaus, reducing incentive for aggressive fee collection and likely lowering abusive fee practices.
Prospective tenants receive stronger transparency—owners must disclose total monthly amounts (including fees) and provide property/landlord history (e.g., past litigation, pest/maintenance issues, 10-year rent increases)—helping renters choose safer, more stable housing and budget more accurately.
Small landlords and property owners may lose fee revenue and lose or have reduced ability to use credit reporting to collect unpaid charges, which could prompt rent increases, reduced services/maintenance, or exit of small landlords from the market—shifting costs back to tenants.
Compliance, disclosure, and possible new oversight obligations will impose administrative and compliance costs on owners and regulators; those costs could be passed to tenants through higher rents or reduced housing supply, and taxpayers may fund agency rulemaking/enforcement.
Mandated disclosure of prior litigation, maintenance issues, and landlord history may unintentionally encourage discriminatory or risk-averse screening practices, reducing housing options for applicants perceived as higher risk.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Introduced June 24, 2025 by Jeff Merkley · Last progress June 24, 2025
Prohibits many common rental "junk fees," caps late fees, and requires landlords of federally assisted or federally backed rental units to give standard disclosures to prospective tenants. Directs the CFPB and FTC to jointly define “junk fee” and to bar reporting unpaid junk fees to consumer reporting agencies as an unfair debt-collection practice, with formal rules required within 180 days of enactment.