Vent: landlord slipped a 'maintenance fee' clause into my renewal

I was about to sign a 12-month lease renewal for my apartment in Austin when I caught a line about a $75 monthly maintenance fee for things like changing lightbulbs and unclogging drains. That's stuff I'd normally do myself, you know? Has anyone else seen sneaky fees like this buried in their contracts?

3 comments

3 Comments

sethm587d ago

Shane's move was smart... I read somewhere that landlords in Texas have started pulling this stuff more often since the market cooled off a bit. Calling their bluff usually works if you catch it early.

shane1708d ago

Omg that's so shady! I had a similar thing happen with my last lease in Dallas. They tried to add a $50 "common area maintenance fee" even though I was in a unit with no common areas. I ended up crossing it out with a pen and writing "NOT AGREED" next to it, then I sent them an email saying I'd only sign if they removed it. They actually backed down because they didn't want to lose a tenant over $50. Sometimes you just gotta call their bluff and see if they really want to fight over it.

thomas.river7d ago

Is it just me or did anyone else notice how this whole thing plays out way more often in complex residential leases vs. the simple month-to-month ones? I swear, the more pages of fine print they shove at you, the more hidden fees they try to sneak in. Dallas landlords especially seem to treat those multi-page lease docs like a buffet of cash grabs. I always ask for a plain language summary of all fees upfront, before I even look at the lease text itself.