Renting in Boston can lead to a specific type of frustration that develops gradually, line by line, on a lease that you most likely didn’t carefully read. Most tenants don’t. They move in, pay, and sign. Additionally, some of them were consenting to fees that, according to Massachusetts law, shouldn’t have existed at all somewhere in that paperwork.
When the state’s Attorney General’s office closely examined Green Ocean Property Management, LLC, a Boston-based business that oversees 377 rental properties centered around the city’s hospitals and universities, they essentially discovered that. AG Andrea Joy Campbell announced a $500,000 settlement with the business on July 29, 2026, addressing claims that it had been collecting unlawful fees from tenants under the guise of official language.
The fees themselves are important to comprehend in detail because they provide insight into the real workings of these practices. Tenants were required to pay a $500 “new lease fee” and a $250 “lease renewal fee” in order to stay in a place or to formalize an existing arrangement.
Additionally, there was a $250 “roommate addition fee,” which tenants had to pay if they wanted to share the room with another person. According to Massachusetts law, a landlord may collect the first and last months’ rent, a security deposit, and the cost of replacing a lock at the beginning of a tenancy. That’s the list. There isn’t much space for interpretation.
In addition to those fees, the business allegedly demanded monthly payments from tenants for a “Resident Benefits Package.” It seems reasonable—possibly even appealing—on paper. According to the AG’s office, in reality, the package mostly covered things that a landlord is already required by law to provide, such as a phone number for requests for emergency repairs, the option to pay rent without being charged extra, and the ability to obtain a landlord reference without having to pay for it. In essence, tenants were charged for using their own legal rights.
It’s difficult to ignore the fact that people who live in this specific group of apartments—which are close to hospitals and universities—tend to be busy, young, frequently navigating a city for the first time, or just too overburdened to refuse a lease addendum. It’s unclear if that overlap was deliberate. However, once you notice it, it’s the kind of detail that makes you uncomfortable.
Additionally, the AG’s office claimed that Green Ocean was “double-dipping” on early lease termination fees by charging both actual damages and liquidated damages at the same time. This is a practice that courts have long examined. Additionally, the company’s leases allegedly contained clauses that discouraged tenants from contacting property owners directly by imposing severe penalties. Additionally, the lease reportedly structured payments so that rent dollars were applied first to late fees and other charges before being counted as rent, which may have been the most practically detrimental detail. This meant that a tenant who was technically on time could still be flagged as late.
The $500,000 will be used to compensate the impacted tenants. Green Ocean has also agreed to cease collecting fees that are prohibited by state law as part of the agreement.
In her statement, AG Campbell, who pushed through revised junk fee regulations in 2025 that she called among the most comprehensive in the nation at the time, was pointed. “As Massachusetts residents continue to grapple with an increasingly high cost of living,” she stated, “they should not be forced to pay illegal fees.”
That is accurate, and the settlement is important. However, Green Ocean managed fewer than 400 units, which raises a legitimate question that is worth considering. The rental market in Boston is huge. The number of similar arrangements in buildings where no complaints have been made or where tenants have just accepted the expenses and moved on is still unknown. A $500,000 settlement is a significant outcome. The question of whether it deters the industry as a whole is another, and it’s probably worthwhile to ask.
