Check your rent bill: You could be paying a monthly fee for a service you didn't know you signed up for

MW Check your rent bill: You could be paying a monthly fee for a service you didn't know you signed up for

By Genna Contino

A private-equity-backed real-estate tech giant just filed for an IPO - and is facing a lawsuit over tenant junk fees

Fees for parking and trash removal are common when renting - but some property-management technology companies are now paying property managers to sign tenants up for a subscription service that reports rent payments to credit bureaus, according to a new class-action complaint.

When the first of each month comes around, Uriah Fish owes his Denver-area apartment complex $1,665 for rent. Plus a $17.91 trash-removal fee. And a $10 charge for trash hauling and $15 for valet trash service, on top of several other fees.

Fish's monthly housing costs total about $1,770 with all the added fees - and that's not including gas, electric, water and sewer charges.

One of those fees is for RentPlus, a service marketed as helping renters build credit that Fish alleges he was auto-enrolled in. Fish, who said he doesn't recall reading anything about it when he signed his lease, has been charged $9.95 monthly since March 2025, according to a class-action complaint made by Fish and other tenants against RentPlus's parent company.

The lawsuit was filed Monday by attorneys at Towards Justice - a Denver nonprofit that advocates for workers and borrowers and that has sued companies on their behalf - against the property-management tech company Entrata (ENT). Entrata says its RentPlus service boosts renters' credit scores by reporting positive rent-payment history to credit bureaus. Tenants allege that Entrata misleads tenants about its rent-reporting program, pays property managers to enroll tenants, applies charges for services it has not provided and violates federal and state consumer-protection laws.

Entrata did not immediately respond to MarketWatch's request for comment. RentPlus's website says the service "makes it possible to lift your credit score by simply paying your regular rent on time and enjoy access to ID and fraud protection and financial security-building resources." It says users see an average credit-score increase of 20 to 40 points after being enrolled for a year but notes that each case is different.

Rent-payment reporting has generally been promoted as a consumer-friendly tool. Landlords historically did not report on-time rent payments to credit bureaus, but housing and consumer advocates have long argued that renters should receive credit for making their largest monthly payment on time. In recent years, property managers and third-party companies have increasingly begun reporting rental-payment data, which tenants can request from their property managers if they're looking to build their credit history. The lawsuit does not challenge rent reporting itself, but rather the way the plaintiffs allege RentPlus enrolls and charges consumers for the service.

Attorneys and consumer advocates say Entrata's business model disproportionately impacts middle- and low-income consumers, many of whom are already dipping into emergency savings just to afford gas as the inflation rate sits at a three-year high.

An extra "$120 a year to somebody who's making $100,000 may feel like nothing," said Mike Pierce, the executive director of Protect Borrowers, a nonprofit focused on fighting predatory lending practices that published a blog post about the Entrata lawsuit Tuesday. "[That same] $120 a year to somebody who's right on the edge of poverty and barely able to keep a roof over their head - that's medicine for their kids, that's food on the table."

Entrata, which also provides tenant screening and utility services for property managers through different subscription services, filed for an initial public offering Thursday. In the filing, the company details how its growth strategy relies on "natural expansion within existing relationships." So whenever Entrata adds a new client to its extensive suite of "proptech" - short for property-management technology - services, it already has renters enrolled in the platform whom the company can market additional services to through participating property managers, said Towards Justice attorney Rachel Dempsey.

The company goes on to list that fee structure as a risk, acknowledging that heightened regulatory scrutiny or legal action targeting its screening and credit-reporting arms could force it to "pay substantial damages and change the way we conduct our business, any of which might have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations."

The IPO filing also notes that Entrata and 12 other property-management software providers received a letter from the Federal Trade Commission in December 2025 warning that the agency intended to scrutinize whether the companies are being transparent with tenants about the fees they charge.

Property managers profit from RentPlus enrollment, lawsuit alleges

Entrata, which was founded in 2003, recorded net income of $60 million for the year ending March 31, the company said in its IPO filing, with revenue growing 23% over the same year. The Lehi, Utah, company was valued at $4.3 billion as of May 2025, when alternative-asset giant Blackstone (BX) invested $200 million, according to a company press release. Private-equity firm Silver Lake has maintained a majority stake in Entrata since March 2022.

While the company advertises its rent-reporting service to tenants as a way to boost their credit scores on RentPlus.com, its messaging directed at property managers looks different.

Read more: Tempted to use buy-now-pay-later to split your rent payments? Watch out for these fees.

Entrata has a separate property-management-facing website, RentDynamics.com, that promotes RentPlus as a way for property managers to increase net operating income. The site features a calculator to show how much ancillary revenue can be earned. For example, a company that operates 10,000 units with 80% of residents participating (which the website says is the average participation rate) could earn $48,000 a month or $576,000 a year in RentPlus revenue, according to the calculator.

That revenue likely comes from a portion of the fees RentPlus charges tenants, Dempsey said. While RentPlus used to be a service that renters could opt in to, the lawsuit alleges that it instead began auto-enrolling tenants with the option to opt out about five years ago. This tactic is sometimes called a negative option, meaning that a consumer's failure to say no to receiving a good or service amounts to consent to being charged for it.

"These large corporate property-management companies have come to understand, I think fairly recently, that tenants are the sort of captive audience of consumers that they have been piling fees and fees and fees on top of for, I think, increasingly dubious services," Dempsey said.

Some tenants say they were enrolled through a RentPlus "addendum" buried in lengthy lease documents. Fish, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said this is how he was enrolled at his previous residence. The addendum appeared on page 46 of a 50-page lease renewal written in the same size, color and font as other housing terms, according to the lawsuit, and it said he would have to visit RentPlus's website in order to opt out.

Read more: What the growing gap between Americans with good and bad credit says about today's economy

Those who do understand they're enrolling in the service when they sign their lease might like the idea of a service that helps boost their credit. Improving their credit score is one of the few levers consumers have to lower their borrowing costs, especially as prices for cars and homes remain high. And 15% of people in the consumer-credit market have a subprime credit score of 600 or below, according to TransUnion (TRU) data, up a full percentage point since 2022.

RentPlus says it reports positive payment history and does not report late rent payments negatively. However, if a tenant is late or misses a payment, it shows up as "no data available" on a credit report, which Dempsey said lenders and future landlords can draw negative inferences from. And even with RentPlus excluding missed or partial payments from its credit reporting, Dempsey said landlords can request separate rent-specific credit reports during the tenant-screening process, such as Experian's (UK:EXPN) RentBureau, that can reveal late payments even if RentPlus doesn't report that month.

"Worst-case scenario is that the sort of information that they are reporting, including the 'no data available,' provides, essentially, derogatory information to potential creditors and future landlords," Dempsey said.

Some tenants say RentPlus isn't even providing the services it charges for. Kelley Rowan, another plaintiff who has been enrolled since January 2026, alleges that credit reports from TransUnion, Equifax $(EFX)$ and Experian show no rent-payment history for her, although she has always paid her rent and her $14.95 RentPlus fee on time (fees vary by property and household size).

'This is an elaborate fee-harvesting scheme'

Plaintiffs in the class-action complaint allege Entrata's business model is deceptive and misleading, which violates both the Credit Repair Organizations Act and the Colorado Credit Services Organization Act. The former is a federal law passed in the 1990s that requires organizations providing credit-repair services to provide written contracts and prohibits them from demanding advance payments. The latter is a similar state law in Colorado, where the lawsuit was filed.

From the archives (February 2025): What eliminating the nation's top consumer watchdog means for home buyers and renters. 'It's open season.'

"It just jumps off the page in this complaint that, really, this is just an elaborate fee-harvesting scheme," Pierce said. "They use the words 'credit repair,' but what's really happening here is a negative option that extracts fees from people with the assumption that most people wanted this."

MW Check your rent bill: You could be paying a monthly fee for a service you didn't know you signed up for

By Genna Contino

A private-equity-backed real-estate tech giant just filed for an IPO - and is facing a lawsuit over tenant junk fees

Fees for parking and trash removal are common when renting - but some property-management technology companies are now paying property managers to sign tenants up for a subscription service that reports rent payments to credit bureaus, according to a new class-action complaint.

When the first of each month comes around, Uriah Fish owes his Denver-area apartment complex $1,665 for rent. Plus a $17.91 trash-removal fee. And a $10 charge for trash hauling and $15 for valet trash service, on top of several other fees.

Fish's monthly housing costs total about $1,770 with all the added fees - and that's not including gas, electric, water and sewer charges.

One of those fees is for RentPlus, a service marketed as helping renters build credit that Fish alleges he was auto-enrolled in. Fish, who said he doesn't recall reading anything about it when he signed his lease, has been charged $9.95 monthly since March 2025, according to a class-action complaint made by Fish and other tenants against RentPlus's parent company.

The lawsuit was filed Monday by attorneys at Towards Justice - a Denver nonprofit that advocates for workers and borrowers and that has sued companies on their behalf - against the property-management tech company Entrata (ENT). Entrata says its RentPlus service boosts renters' credit scores by reporting positive rent-payment history to credit bureaus. Tenants allege that Entrata misleads tenants about its rent-reporting program, pays property managers to enroll tenants, applies charges for services it has not provided and violates federal and state consumer-protection laws.

Entrata did not immediately respond to MarketWatch's request for comment. RentPlus's website says the service "makes it possible to lift your credit score by simply paying your regular rent on time and enjoy access to ID and fraud protection and financial security-building resources." It says users see an average credit-score increase of 20 to 40 points after being enrolled for a year but notes that each case is different.

Rent-payment reporting has generally been promoted as a consumer-friendly tool. Landlords historically did not report on-time rent payments to credit bureaus, but housing and consumer advocates have long argued that renters should receive credit for making their largest monthly payment on time. In recent years, property managers and third-party companies have increasingly begun reporting rental-payment data, which tenants can request from their property managers if they're looking to build their credit history. The lawsuit does not challenge rent reporting itself, but rather the way the plaintiffs allege RentPlus enrolls and charges consumers for the service.

Attorneys and consumer advocates say Entrata's business model disproportionately impacts middle- and low-income consumers, many of whom are already dipping into emergency savings just to afford gas as the inflation rate sits at a three-year high.

An extra "$120 a year to somebody who's making $100,000 may feel like nothing," said Mike Pierce, the executive director of Protect Borrowers, a nonprofit focused on fighting predatory lending practices that published a blog post about the Entrata lawsuit Tuesday. "[That same] $120 a year to somebody who's right on the edge of poverty and barely able to keep a roof over their head - that's medicine for their kids, that's food on the table."

Entrata, which also provides tenant screening and utility services for property managers through different subscription services, filed for an initial public offering Thursday. In the filing, the company details how its growth strategy relies on "natural expansion within existing relationships." So whenever Entrata adds a new client to its extensive suite of "proptech" - short for property-management technology - services, it already has renters enrolled in the platform whom the company can market additional services to through participating property managers, said Towards Justice attorney Rachel Dempsey.

The company goes on to list that fee structure as a risk, acknowledging that heightened regulatory scrutiny or legal action targeting its screening and credit-reporting arms could force it to "pay substantial damages and change the way we conduct our business, any of which might have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations."

The IPO filing also notes that Entrata and 12 other property-management software providers received a letter from the Federal Trade Commission in December 2025 warning that the agency intended to scrutinize whether the companies are being transparent with tenants about the fees they charge.

Property managers profit from RentPlus enrollment, lawsuit alleges

Entrata, which was founded in 2003, recorded net income of $60 million for the year ending March 31, the company said in its IPO filing, with revenue growing 23% over the same year. The Lehi, Utah, company was valued at $4.3 billion as of May 2025, when alternative-asset giant Blackstone (BX) invested $200 million, according to a company press release. Private-equity firm Silver Lake has maintained a majority stake in Entrata since March 2022.

While the company advertises its rent-reporting service to tenants as a way to boost their credit scores on RentPlus.com, its messaging directed at property managers looks different.

Read more: Tempted to use buy-now-pay-later to split your rent payments? Watch out for these fees.

Entrata has a separate property-management-facing website, RentDynamics.com, that promotes RentPlus as a way for property managers to increase net operating income. The site features a calculator to show how much ancillary revenue can be earned. For example, a company that operates 10,000 units with 80% of residents participating (which the website says is the average participation rate) could earn $48,000 a month or $576,000 a year in RentPlus revenue, according to the calculator.

That revenue likely comes from a portion of the fees RentPlus charges tenants, Dempsey said. While RentPlus used to be a service that renters could opt in to, the lawsuit alleges that it instead began auto-enrolling tenants with the option to opt out about five years ago. This tactic is sometimes called a negative option, meaning that a consumer's failure to say no to receiving a good or service amounts to consent to being charged for it.

"These large corporate property-management companies have come to understand, I think fairly recently, that tenants are the sort of captive audience of consumers that they have been piling fees and fees and fees on top of for, I think, increasingly dubious services," Dempsey said.

Some tenants say they were enrolled through a RentPlus "addendum" buried in lengthy lease documents. Fish, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said this is how he was enrolled at his previous residence. The addendum appeared on page 46 of a 50-page lease renewal written in the same size, color and font as other housing terms, according to the lawsuit, and it said he would have to visit RentPlus's website in order to opt out.

Read more: What the growing gap between Americans with good and bad credit says about today's economy

Those who do understand they're enrolling in the service when they sign their lease might like the idea of a service that helps boost their credit. Improving their credit score is one of the few levers consumers have to lower their borrowing costs, especially as prices for cars and homes remain high. And 15% of people in the consumer-credit market have a subprime credit score of 600 or below, according to TransUnion (TRU) data, up a full percentage point since 2022.

RentPlus says it reports positive payment history and does not report late rent payments negatively. However, if a tenant is late or misses a payment, it shows up as "no data available" on a credit report, which Dempsey said lenders and future landlords can draw negative inferences from. And even with RentPlus excluding missed or partial payments from its credit reporting, Dempsey said landlords can request separate rent-specific credit reports during the tenant-screening process, such as Experian's (UK:EXPN) RentBureau, that can reveal late payments even if RentPlus doesn't report that month.

"Worst-case scenario is that the sort of information that they are reporting, including the 'no data available,' provides, essentially, derogatory information to potential creditors and future landlords," Dempsey said.

Some tenants say RentPlus isn't even providing the services it charges for. Kelley Rowan, another plaintiff who has been enrolled since January 2026, alleges that credit reports from TransUnion, Equifax (EFX) and Experian show no rent-payment history for her, although she has always paid her rent and her $14.95 RentPlus fee on time (fees vary by property and household size).

'This is an elaborate fee-harvesting scheme'

Plaintiffs in the class-action complaint allege Entrata's business model is deceptive and misleading, which violates both the Credit Repair Organizations Act and the Colorado Credit Services Organization Act. The former is a federal law passed in the 1990s that requires organizations providing credit-repair services to provide written contracts and prohibits them from demanding advance payments. The latter is a similar state law in Colorado, where the lawsuit was filed.

From the archives (February 2025): What eliminating the nation's top consumer watchdog means for home buyers and renters. 'It's open season.'

"It just jumps off the page in this complaint that, really, this is just an elaborate fee-harvesting scheme," Pierce said. "They use the words 'credit repair,' but what's really happening here is a negative option that extracts fees from people with the assumption that most people wanted this."

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June 02, 2026 14:30 ET (18:30 GMT)

MW Check your rent bill: You could be paying a -2-

Entrata says 2.5 million units are enrolled in its operating system, but the company offers a suite of property-management services beyond RentPlus, including payment processing and rental insurance. Proptech giant RealPage also offers rent reporting to tenants, as do Rental Kharma, Esusu and Foxen, none of which immediately responded to MarketWatch's request for comment.

If a tenant finds fees for third-party services on their rent bill, they can contact the property manager to demand the fee be removed. Because the tech platforms often manage the subscriptions independently, tenants often must also go directly to the provider's website - such as RentPlus.com - to formally submit an opt-out request and stop the automated billing cycle.

Advocates warn that until federal regulators crack down more aggressively on opt-out fee models, the burden will remain entirely on everyday consumers to audit their own bills for junk fees.

"It's really a systematic issue, and it costs renters thousands of dollars a year," Dempsey said.

Read next: Want the lowest mortgage rate you can get? Credit-scoring changes mean home buyers need a new strategy.

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