What Greystar Agreed to Change After the $24 Million Hidden-Fee Settlement

The FTC and Colorado said mandatory monthly fees were kept out of advertised rents. Here is the complaint, the settlement terms, and the lawsuits that followed.

An apartment lease on a desk with a long column of tiny itemized charges running off the page, a magnifying glass over it, coins and a pen nearby, in sepia ink-wash style with one red accent. — Illustration generated with ElevenLabs. It depicts no real people, properties or documents.

In January 2025, the Federal Trade Commission and the State of Colorado sued Greystar Real Estate Partners and five affiliates. The complaint alleged that since at least 2019 the company advertised deceptively low base rents while failing to disclose mandatory monthly fees, and that renters often learned about them only after paying a non-refundable application fee. The fees named were pest control, valet trash, package, utility-administration and amenity charges.

The claims were brought under the FTC Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. Bisnow had relayed a Wall Street Journal report days earlier that the agency was preparing to sue.

What the settlement requires

On December 2, 2025, Greystar agreed to pay $24 million. According to the FTC's announcement, $23 million goes to the FTC for consumer refunds and $1 million goes to Colorado. Colorado's Attorney General says its share covers costs, enforcement and consumer education.

The disclosure terms, as Colorado lists them:

The total monthly price, including mandatory fees, must be shown upfront in rental listings.
Every fee must be itemized as either mandatory or optional.
No upfront payment may be collected before full pricing is disclosed.

The order was described as a proposed stipulated order. The summaries in our record do not say whether it includes an admission of wrongdoing, so the order itself is the place to check that.

Arizona follows

In May 2026, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced three settlements filed in Maricopa County Superior Court as assurances of discontinuance. One adopts the injunctive terms of the FTC and Colorado settlement, with about $1.5 million in anticipated restitution to Arizona consumers from the FTC fund. The other two resolve alleged Arizona Consumer Fraud Act junk-fee violations at The Julia and Avana Gilbert, with a combined $100,000 in restitution. Local coverage put the total at about $1.6 million.

The private lawsuits

Government action is not the only track. Two proposed class actions in our record make similar claims.

In January 2024, tenants filed Collins v. GREP Southwest in Denver County, alleging that thousands of Colorado renters were made to pay inflated, late-disclosed fees on top of advertised rent. We have not confirmed an outcome.
In April 2025, Wu et al. v. Greystar was filed in the Southern District of California. It alleges "drip pricing" of pest control, trash and utility-administration fees, under California's Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law, Consumers Legal Remedies Act and Honest Pricing Law. It is pending.

Reuters reported that additional proposed class actions followed the FTC case.

How many fees are we talking about

A June 2026 Guardian investigation by Tracie McMillan counted at least 125 differently named fees at Greystar properties, including boiler management, refrigerant, "solar rebill" and "lifestyle" fees. Tenants described the charges as "unfair" and "inflated." Greystar denied the claims.

Texas Standard picked up the story, noting that Greystar manages about 200,000 units in Texas and that some leases there carry five to eleven mandatory fees on top of rent.

What the settlement does and does not decide

The settlement is about how fees are advertised and disclosed. It does not decide whether any individual fee was lawful, and the pending class actions remain allegations. What it does give renters is a concrete checklist: a listing that shows the all-in monthly price, labels each fee as mandatory or optional, and does not ask for money before showing the full price.

Read the record

Each item below is on The Greystar Review with a link to its original source.

This article summarizes public records and published reporting collected by The Greystar Review. Allegations are described as allegations, and a settlement is not a finding of wrongdoing unless a court or agency says so. If something here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.