One of the recurring themes of the Biden administration has been to address the needs of consumers who rent their living spaces. The White House released a new fact sheet on how it plans to extend protections to renters.

One of the difficulties it faces is the predominance and power that state and local governments have, creating a "a patchwork of state and local laws and legal processes that leave far too many renters with little recourse when housing providers fail to comply with the law or the lease agreement," as the White House stated.

But there are steps the executive branch can take without the cooperation of Congress. Earlier in July, the Biden administration had already focused on 'junk fees' for renters. In this latest attempt with a focus on rental housing, some of the fees the White House mentioned were application fees that exceed the cost of performing background and credit checks. "Even after renters secure housing, they are often surprised to be charged mandatory fees on top of their rent, including 'convenience fees' to pay rent online, fees for things like mail sorting and trash collection, and even so-called 'January fees' charged for no clear reason at the beginning of a new calendar year." Another negative aspect of hidden fees is that they make comparison shopping more difficult to do.