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Is it legal for a property management company to require a convenience fee for every type of payment they accept, or must they accept some form of payment that costs nothing extra? It seems to me that the lease stipulates a contracted total amount of monthly payments, and requiring an additional fee to pay it effectively increases the rent.

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  • Thgis would be a matter od state law, and might well vary from state to state. Law might be different for residential rentals and retail transactions. It also would depend on whether such fees were spelled out in the lease.
    – David Siegel
    Commented Dec 28, 2022 at 0:58

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Until it was found to be unconstitutional, Florida had a law against surcharges for using a credit card (the statute is still on the books, however). That was the only law against "convenience fees" related to making payments.

Whether or not a business will accept a particular form of payment (check, credit card, money order, traveler's check, cash) is up to business. Apart from credit cards, there has been no law against charging for accepting a particular form of payment, but that charge would have to be part of the contract – the lease would have to specify in advance what the processing fee is for money orders vs. cash vs. credit card. The residential tenancies law of Florida does not prohibit incorporating fees into the terms of a lease (as some states do), so the lease can specify "$1500 for rent plus $10 for payment-processing, every month".

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  • I belive that a number of states have laws prohibiting credit surcharges on retail transactions over a given amout. Was the FL law found to be against the state constitutions? an you cite the case?
    – David Siegel
    Commented Dec 28, 2022 at 0:56
  • Dana's Railroad Supply v. Attorney General, State of Florida, cases.justia.com/federal/appellate-courts/ca11/14-14426/…
    – user6726
    Commented Dec 28, 2022 at 1:44
  • Thank you for the citation.
    – David Siegel
    Commented Dec 28, 2022 at 2:39
  • For additional context, what if this is a new property owner taking over an existing contract? So such terms would not be in the original contract.
    – Alan
    Commented Dec 28, 2022 at 3:22

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