Lease renewal fee after one year lease?

[Andy Ramos]

I am attempting to work with a property manager but I'm seeing a read flag and would love some input.

This company wants to charge a 1 month placement fee for a new tenant, which I am totally fine with but also is saying they would charge me that fee AGAIN when the tenant renews their lease the following year. This does not seem standard to me, and maybe illegal? Any thoughts? 

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Andy Ramos:

It is not illegal, but it is unreasonable.

The leasing fee covers all the work associated with moving the old tenant out, supervising the turnover, marketing, screening applicants, getting them under contract, moving them in, etc. It's the bulk of our work on any lease, which is why we charge a large leasing fee.

Lease renewal requires very little work, usually 1-2 hours. It's fair to charge for this additional work, but it's not nearly as much as placing a new tenant and shouldn't be as high.

I charge 50% of a month's rent for placing a new tenant. I charge a flat $200 for a lease renewal.