Austin’s Rental Fee Disclosure Rules Start October 1, and Your Listings Are Part of the Compliance Problem
By Hari Nathan Kalyan, Managing Attorney, Warren Kalyan.
Five Key Takeaways
- Ordinance No. 20260528-045 applies October 1, 2026 to operators of 50 or more units. Everyone else covered by the ordinance, including smaller operators and mobile home and RV space providers, comes in January 1, 2027.
- You must disclose total itemized fees at the quote, not at signing. The obligation is triggered when you give a prospect rent information or before they submit an application, whichever comes first.
- The advertising rule is the one operators are most likely to miss. Any ad that references the cost to rent must build in mandatory recurring fixed fees, which means your ILS feeds and listing sites are part of the compliance problem.
- No culpable mental state is required to violate the ordinance. A good faith mistake is not a defense, though using the city's administrative disclosure form once it is published gives you a presumption of compliance on the disclosure obligation only.
- Preemption is unsettled, so do not wait on it. The Texas Regulatory Consistency Act remains in effect during a pending appeal, so plan to comply while any legal challenge plays out.
Austin now requires rental housing providers to give prospective tenants an itemized list of every fee before an application goes in, and to put mandatory recurring fees inside the advertised price, with operators of 50 or more units on the clock first.
If you own or manage apartments in Austin, you have about four weeks.
On May 28, 2026, the Austin City Council adopted Ordinance No. 20260528-045, which adds a new fee disclosure article to City Code Chapter 4-14. It applies on and after October 1, 2026, to anyone who rents, leases, or manages 50 or more dwellings used as a residence. Everyone else covered by the ordinance, including smaller operators and mobile home and RV space providers, comes in on January 1, 2027.
Most of the coverage of this ordinance has framed it as a transparency measure for renters. That is true, and it is also incomplete. Read the actual text and you find two separate obligations with two different failure modes. One is a disclosure document you hand a prospect. The other is a rule about how you price your advertising. We expect the second one to catch more operators off guard than the first.
What the Disclosure Requires
Under Section 4-14-142, you have to disclose total fees at the earlier of two moments: when you or your agent give a customer information about the amount of rent, or before that customer submits an application. Not at lease signing. Not with the first bill. At the quote.
The disclosure has to be in writing and has to include an itemized list of the total fees that will be assessed during the lease term. That means the amount of mandatory fees, the amount of optional fees, and an estimate of variable fees. You can deliver it electronically or by hand.
The definitions do real work here, so read them closely. Mandatory fees mean the monthly cost of rent plus any mandatory one time or recurring fixed fees. Optional fees are for goods, services, or amenities you offer but the tenant does not have to accept. Variable fees are the ones tenants must pay but that turn on usage or other factors outside your control, and the ordinance names utilities as an example. Fees for tenant caused damage or lease violations are carved out.
That variable fee estimate is the line item we expect people to get wrong. If you bill back water, trash, or common area utilities through a ratio utility billing system, you now owe a prospect a number before they apply. Pick a methodology, document it, and use it consistently across the portfolio.
The Advertising Rule Is the Sleeper
Section 4-14-143 is three sentences long and it will change how your marketing team works. Whenever an advertisement includes any reference to the cost to rent, you have to disclose the cost of rent plus any recurring fixed fees that are mandatory inside that advertisement. Advertisement is defined broadly: any notice that markets housing, published in print or electronically on one or more websites.
So the number on your ILS listing is no longer just base rent. If you charge a mandatory monthly technology fee and a mandatory monthly pest control fee, the advertised figure has to reflect them. Your syndication feeds, your own website, your third party listing sites, and your paid social all fall inside that definition.
There is one affirmative defense worth knowing. If you can establish that the advertisement or listing was displayed without your consent, you have a defense to prosecution. That is narrow relief, and it will not help you with a stale feed you are still paying for.
Penalties, and the Safe Harbor
A provider who violates the article, or allows someone else to violate it, commits a misdemeanor under the City Code general penalty provision. Local reporting has put the practical exposure at fines up to $500 per offense, with enforcement running on complaints rather than audits.
The part to pay attention to is the culpable mental state. The ordinance says one is not required and need not be proved. You do not get credit for a good faith mistake.
You do, however, get a presumption of compliance. If the accountable official establishes a disclosure form by administrative rule, and you use that form and fill it out accurately, you are presumed to comply with the disclosure requirement. That is a real benefit, and it argues for waiting on the city's form rather than building your own from scratch, provided the form lands before your compliance date. Note the presumption covers the disclosure obligation, not the advertising obligation. The ad copy problem is yours either way.
The Federal Backdrop
Austin is not moving in isolation. The council's own findings cite the Federal Trade Commission's advance notice of proposed rulemaking on unfair or deceptive rental housing fee practices, published March 13, 2026, with comments closing the following month. The FTC is looking at fees across the whole lease lifecycle, from application through move out. Nothing has been finalized federally, so plan for Austin today and watch Washington.
The Preemption Question Sitting in the Background
Some operators will ask whether the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, House Bill 2127, knocks this out. City staff reportedly delayed drafting in part to reduce that risk, and the Austin Apartment Association raised preemption in opposition. That statute has been the subject of a constitutional challenge, and the state appealed the trial court ruling, so the law has remained in effect during the appeal. We would not build a compliance plan on the hope that a court invalidates the ordinance. Comply, and preserve your arguments.
What We Would Do Before October 1
Count your doors under one ownership. The phase in turns on 50 or more dwellings, and the ordinance article itself reaches providers with five or more dwellings owned by one person. Entity structure matters to that count, so map it.
Build the fee inventory. Every mandatory fee, every optional add on, every variable pass through, with amounts and billing frequency. You cannot disclose what nobody has written down.
Split mandatory from optional in writing. Bundles that are functionally mandatory but labeled optional are the highest risk item in the file.
Fix the feeds. Decide the all in advertised number, push it through every syndication channel, and put someone's name on keeping it current.
Retrain the leasing team. The trigger is the rent quote, which happens on the phone and in the tour, not at signing.
Warren Kalyan works with multifamily owners, operators, and managers across Texas on lease documents, fee structures, disclosure compliance, and eviction practice. If your fee stack was designed before this ordinance existed, now is the time to look at it.
Is your fee stack ready for October 1?
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General information only, not legal advice for your specific situation.