Your lease is the agreement, not whatever gets added later
A signed lease is a binding contract. Both you and your landlord are bound by what it actually says, and neither side can unilaterally change the deal partway through. If a fee shows up on a bill, a portal, or a notice that was never part of your lease, the starting legal position is that you didn't agree to pay it — a landlord can't create a new financial obligation on their own and expect you to comply just because they wrote it down somewhere.
When a new fee CAN become valid
A new fee can become enforceable if you actually agree to it — for example, by signing a lease amendment, initialing an addendum, or accepting new terms at renewal. Silence usually isn't agreement, though continuing to pay a new charge without objection for a long time can sometimes be read as accepting it, so it's worth objecting in writing as soon as you notice an unauthorized fee rather than waiting.
This is exactly what federal regulators call "unfair or deceptive"
The FTC Act makes it illegal to use unfair or deceptive practices in commerce, and the FTC's own March 2026 review of rental housing fees specifically raises the question of landlords "imposing fees and charges without express informed consent" as one of the practices it's examining. That review hasn't produced a rule yet, but the underlying FTC Act authority already exists and has been used: in 2024 the FTC obtained a $48 million settlement from Invitation Homes, and in 2025 a $23 million settlement, plus $1 million to the State of Colorado, from Greystar — both over rental fee practices, including fees that weren't properly disclosed to renters before they committed.
A concrete example
Say your lease has no mention of a "package handling fee," but six months in, a new charge for $15 a month appears on your portal statement labeled that way. Nothing in your lease, any addendum, or any email you can find authorizes it. That's a new fee added outside your contract, and the starting position is that you don't owe it. Compare that to a scenario where your lease includes a clause allowing the landlord to pass through new, itemized service charges with 30 days' written notice, and you actually received that notice — there, the fee may be valid precisely because your original lease already agreed to that mechanism.
What to do if a new fee appears
- Compare the new fee against your actual signed lease, page by page — don't rely on what a property manager or portal notice says the lease requires.
- Ask, in writing, where the fee comes from and what provision authorizes it.
- If there's no basis for it, say clearly that you don't agree to the new charge and won't pay it, and keep a copy of that message.
- Don't simply stop paying rent over the dispute — withholding rent can put your tenancy at risk even when you're right about the fee. Pay what your lease actually requires and dispute the extra amount separately.
- If the fee keeps appearing on your account as a balance, ask for a corrected statement in writing before it affects anything else, like a renewal or a reference.
Some states go further
Some states restrict what fees a landlord can add to a lease, or require any new charge to be disclosed and agreed to in writing before it's valid. Whether that's true where you live depends on your state's specific landlord-tenant law — check your state's requirements before assuming a general rule applies to you.
If the fee already affected your deposit or credit
If an unauthorized fee was deducted from your security deposit or reported as unpaid rent, treat it the same as any other improper deduction — document your original lease terms and dispute it in writing. See how do I dispute security deposit deductions for the process.
Honestkey™ reads your uploaded lease and flags the fees it contains, so a charge that isn't backed by your signed lease is easy to spot and push back on.