Stuart Renter Flees Quadrupling Trash Fees, Moves in With Brother

A Stuart renter says escalating fees from his landlord — including a trash charge that jumped from $10 to $40 — ultimately forced him to leave his unit and move in with his brother.

Nicholas Baumann, who rents in Stuart, said the individual fees may appear small at first but compound quickly. "All this starts to accumulate," Baumann told WPTV. "At the end of the day, it eats up most of your paycheck." He said conditions were more manageable five or six years ago. "Rental fees were okay back then, depending on where you were," he said. "But now, the rental fees are so absurd that I've actually had to move in with my brother."

The pattern Baumann describes — landlords layering add-on charges on top of advertised base rent — is a growing concern for Treasure Coast renters. Kelley Decowski, a Realtor with RE/MAX on the Treasure Coast, said the practice is common among larger rental companies. "It might not look so bad, but after you add in all the fees, then you might be looking at a pretty decent chunk of change," she said.

Decowski said the fees renters face vary significantly by property. "It's always going to be community dependent," she said. She advised renters to ask management companies for a full monthly cost breakdown before signing and to scrutinize the lease itself. "Your lease agreement is going to say whether or not the community has the ability to raise that fee during the lease term," Decowski said.

For renters weighing options across Martin County and the broader Treasure Coast, Decowski's bottom line is straightforward: the advertised rent figure is rarely the number that will appear on your monthly statement.

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