Glossary

Community Fee (Move-In Fee)

Also known as: community fee, move-in fee

A one-time, largely non-refundable fee charged to a new resident at move-in to an independent living, assisted living, or memory care community, distinct from and in addition to monthly rent, intended to cover administrative and unit preparation costs.

Community fees function partly as a revenue item and partly as a soft deterrent against short-stay move-ins, and their size (commonly equivalent to one month's rent, though structures vary) and refund policy are frequently used as a promotional lever -- operators routinely waive or discount community fees during slower leasing periods as an incentive, which means community-fee revenue and concession trends are worth tracking separately from base rent when assessing true net effective rate trends in a leasing environment, similar in spirit to concession tracking in conventional multifamily but applied to a different fee structure.