Administration Fee?

Question

My daughter and I are apartment hunting and every complex we go to has all sorts of fees. I can understand application fees and pet fees.

However, everyone wants to charge an Administration Fee but no one has the same reason and some don't have any reason for charging it. Is it just a scam to get more money out of us?

what i really want to know is what the fee is actually for, an actual legal description if someone has it or a working description for it.

anyone with half a brain could say it's a bs scam, i should'nt have added the last sentance.

in the atlanta area, the administration fees, so far, have varied from $50 to 125.

Answer 1

Honestly? Yes, it's a scam to get more money out of you.

Answer 2

Where I live it is customary to charge an application fee. I charge $10. It is the amount that the credit reporting agency charges me for a credit report.. I do not charge for verifying information on the application. If I have my apartment association verify all the items on the application, they will charge me $23 for this, and sometimes they do a poor job. According to state law I am not supposed to charge more than $20 to the tenant. But I know many apartments are charging $25 for all of this, which I believe is fair.

Answer 3

As an apartment manager myself, I charge a one time $25 administrative fee and this is exactly what it covers:

$7.50 - is what the City charges the owner per apartment for their rental inspection program whenever an inspection is done (every 1-3 years, depending on your previous grade)

$25.00- is what the City charges the owner per building, every year, just to remain "registered" in the inspection program.

$2.50 - is what it costs us roughly per unit for the vast amount of paperwork we need to supply to the City and consent forms we need to obtain from every resident prior to inspection.

So in this case, our $25.00 Administrative Fee is justified, and in my personal opinion, it's the local government who are scamming landlords and residents. It varies from area to area of course, but this is just one example. Trust me, I don't like charging it, but the property can not take on the enormous cost alone unless we wanted to raise rental rates considerably.

Answer 4

go to craigslist.com for your specific area and search for no-fee apartments, or those being listed by the owners themselves. The fee that you are being charged is a standard fee charged by all management companies that run the complexes, and besides it being a way to derive more revenue, it also helps ward away individuals who are not serious or may not qualify due to specific credit requirements.

Answer 5

Your avatar says Army wife, go to the local military housing office they have pretty good search tools for off post housing including lists of renters that dont usually rip people off. But yes those fees are just BS to get more money out of you, But if everyone is chargeing them there is not much you can do.