Street View is a monthly column taking a close look at development-related issues affecting different neighborhoods throughout the city.
In May, tenants at Artemis Midtown received an email from the apartment complex’s management team, informing them of some fee increases. Their monthly fee from utility management company Conservice would increase from $4.99 to $7.50. The complex was also instituting a “standard vacant service fee” of $50, plus $25 move-in and move-out fees.
These fee increases weren’t big enough to faze some Artemis residents. But one tenant, attorney Devin Majors, saw the situation differently. He believes these fees violate the terms of his lease. And if Artemis is allowed to institute them, they might set an alarming precedent for landlords across the state.
Now Majors is suing Elmington Properties, the management company that owns Artemis Midtown. His lawsuit alleges that because Artemis’ fee increases constitute an alteration to residents’ leases, the charges aren’t legal.
“There is no provision in the lease that allows management to increase the utility billing fee or add new move-out charges during the lease term without the tenant’s written consent,” writes Majors in an email to the Scene.
Elmington Properties has faced controversy in the past. Last year, the company faced significant backlash from local advocates for allegedly unlawful evictions, tenant mistreatment and lack of maintenance at Hobson Flats. Hobson Flats is an Elmington-run affordable housing complex that received funding from Metro’s Barnes Housing Trust Fund. In 2022, Elmington faced more controversy when the company raised rent twice in six months at another affordable housing complex.
Hobson Flats received Barnes Fund support, but advocates say more than 100 tenants have received eviction notices since 2021
When Majors initially disputed the fees, he received an email from Keandria Bean, Elmington’s multisite manager. The Conservice fee “is not set by us, but rather passed through to residents, as outlined on the first page of your lease,” she explained. “The fee change is due to a transition to a new utility billing company, which comes with different pricing,” the email continued.
“Your lease doesn’t allow for changes to your base rent during the term,” Bean explained. “However, it does allow for adjustments to third-party service fees.”
“Their theory is that because it’s not considered rent that they’re allowed to [raise prices] according to tenancy law,” says Majors. “Obviously I disagree with that opinion — I think most attorneys would disagree with that opinion. When you sign the lease, everything in there is rent, even if you phrase it as a fee.”
These fees may seem small, but they can add up when multiplied by Artemis’ 146 units. But more than that, the increase raises important questions about what landlords can and can’t charge. If a landlord’s bills increase and it’s not specified as variable in the lease, do they accept less profit, or should tenants foot the bill?
Elizabeth Leiserson, an attorney for Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, says these increases are common practice among Nashville landlords. It’s “part and parcel of a bigger issue of what tenant advocates call ‘junk fees,’” says Leiserson. She points to recent studies and reports from the National Consumer Law Center about these fees, which can take the form of excessive application fees, added charges for services landlords are required to provide, or other miscellaneous charges like a “check cashing fee.”
When they’re big enough, junk fees can seriously impact tenants’ lives. But when they’re smaller, they can slip under the radar. And while many “junk fees” are lease violations, fighting them can be challenging.
Majors initially emailed Artemis and said he didn’t consent to the charges. On May 23, he sent Elmington a notice of breach, asking for the complex to remove the Conservice fee increase and move-out fees, and assure him that no adverse action would result from nonpayment.
After that, Elmington stopped emailing Majors. But when he didn’t include the additional $4.50 in his rent, they charged him a $200 late fee. On May 29, Elmington sent a letter through their attorney, Jennifer McCoy, contesting Majors’ points and saying the company “considered the matter fully resolved” and wouldn’t communicate any further regarding the issue. (McCoy’s office, which often handles evictions, has more than 20 unanswered complaints and an “F” rating from the Better Business Bureau.)
“I’ve spent more time and money on this case than I’m going to get,” says Majors, who will recoup just his filing fee and possibly $4.50 if he wins.
Still, he said he’s taken the case because he’s worried about the implications for the market in general. If Elmington wins the case, Majors says it “will just encourage deceptive practices across the market, because all you have to do is disclose the rent amount and then on the back end, when they’ve already signed it, [residents] are stuck in their lease and you have the unilateral authority to just increase the fees on them.”
Majors’ case is set for its first hearing on July 17. He says Elmington still hasn’t communicated with him since Jennifer McCoy’s initial email.
Leiserson says Legal Aid often sees issues like this, and they encourage tenants to write to their landlords.
“A good place to start if a landlord tries to charge you fees that you don’t agree with is with a written request to remove the fees from your ledger,” she says. “Send an email explaining that you noticed these new fees and they don’t seem to be consistent with your lease. Ask your landlord to identify the lease term that allows these fees, and if they can’t do that, to please remove the extra charges. But be careful. If you withhold even a small portion of your rent, you might end up with an eviction filed against you. So try to get the issue sorted out in writing before your rent is due, or if you can afford it, pay the fee that you dispute and then ask afterward for it to be refunded.”
Fighting beyond that can be out of reach for many tenants, unless they qualify for services from organizations like Legal Aid. But that’s why Majors is taking Elmington to court.
“With an amount this small, I’ll just take it on the chin and hopefully it can bring some relief for other people in the apartment complex that probably can’t afford an attorney to fight over a hundred dollars worth of fees,” he says.
Representatives from Artemis Midtown and Elmington Properties did not respond to the Scene’s requests for comment on this story.
