In an increasingly complex legal and regulatory landscape, multifamily operators have several moving pieces to navigate in their efforts to remain compliant. Mill Creek Residential is leaning on technology and innovation to remain ahead of the curve.

That’s in addition to a team of in-house experts who specialize in the various nuances of fee transparency, jurisdiction-specific regulations, Fair Housing guidelines, and additional areas of compliance. Their efforts have tremendously aided the undertaking, as well, for the Boca Raton, Fla.-based operator with a nationwide portfolio of more than 34,000 homes.

Fee Transparency
It has become one of the hot-button topics in the industry. Fee transparency is the practice of disclosing all mandatory fees upfront rather than only base rent so that prospective renters get a more accurate picture of the true cost of renting. Mill Creek is in the process of making it happen across its portfolio.

“Renters are becoming more savvy, and they are asking about the additional fees that they’ll be expected to pay,” says Valerie Gibson, vice president of community support for Mill Creek. “Historically, the industry has taken the approach of making the rental rate look as low as possible, which helps when customers are searching within a certain rent range. But disclosing all fees upfront helps build immediate trust with the renter.”

“We initially prioritized the states we operate in that have legislation in place for fee transparency—namely, Massachusetts and Colorado,” Gibson says. “However, we’ve moved forward with creating a more integrated experience for fee transparency across the board. Our digital marketing team updated our website templates with a new design, and part of that is a new fee calculator that creates a more integrated approach.”

Gibson helps coordinate Mill Creek’s fee transparency efforts by working with property management stakeholders to maintain an accurate list of fees. She and her team then distribute the list to Mill Creek’s various proptech partners to ensure the data remains accurate across all channels. Gibson also ensures that any tech utilized to enhance fee transparency properly integrates with the company’s property management system. In addition, Mill Creek has implemented technology to monitor fees across its websites to ensure consistency and accuracy.

State and Jurisdictional Laws
Less than half of multifamily regulatory requirements are consistent nationwide, a contingent that includes federally driven guidelines such as those pertaining to the Fair Housing Act. The remainder vary by state, county, borough, or city.

Enter Kim Shires, director of compliance for Mill Creek, who works closely with jurisdictional attorneys in every market the company operates. She intensely monitors the abundance of jurisdictional-specific laws and coordinates with Mill Creek’s operations team to ensure the company meets all legal requirements.

“It’s an ongoing process,” Shires says. “I currently work with 14 attorneys nationwide who advise us on their jurisdiction-specific requirements. Anyone can read a law and decide how they interpret it—but what matters is how a judge is going to interpret it when it gets litigated. So, we work with those 14 attorneys who are more aware of the climate in their jurisdictions and how it will be interpreted by their local judges.”

Shires is also responsible for maintaining Mill Creek’s lease documents and addenda—some of which vary by location due to jurisdictional requirements—and routing any edits through the company’s attorneys for approval. These sometimes include extreme nuances, such as the Colorado requirement to include radon disclosures in the application.

Finding the Right Tech
Chalmers supports Mill Creek’s compliance efforts by finding tech that aids the cause. Each innovation she discovers must pass through the proper channels overseen by Gibson, Shires, and executive stakeholders.

“With any technology that I find, I’m seeking to solve a problem, alleviate a pain point, or support a goal,” Chalmers says. “I regularly sit in on team calls and listen to them discuss areas where the teams might be enduring a pain point. One of the recent objectives was to remain on top of all of the local legislation that is proposed, enacted, and passed, and how we can change our operational workflows to remain compliant.”

Upon locating a potentially usable technology, Chalmers first vets it through the lens of compliance. She then ensures all teams are working together to communicate any unaddressed pain points, so she knows whether the technology can be adapted to fit Mill Creek’s parameters, or if a different tech is needed. For instance, some tech might streamline a process but not necessarily assist with compliance.

“Eliminating manual steps is good because it ensures things get done,” she says. “But ensuring things get done is where the compliance part lives. So, if a solution doesn’t integrate, requires additional steps, or doesn’t seamlessly push and pull information from our property management system, we determine it to be a compliance risk.”

Innovation in Motion
While Mill Creek is careful about the innovations it adopts, the company piloted and deployed several technologies in late 2025 and early 2026. These include an alert dashboard that monitors all current legislation across the country and sends a notification whenever a law changes. Another is a security deposit management solution that allows residents to maintain their deposit money and open a high-yield savings account, which enables them to earn interest on their deposit.

“Some of the best solutions we’ve partnered with are those that are nimble, develop quickly, and carry a good understanding of the law,” Chalmers notes. “That is crucial, because we—as any operator would—have specific preferences and ways we operate. The customization component is important, but if the solution isn’t helping us meet legal requirements, it has to develop quickly for us to be able to use it.”

Mill Creek also adopted an artificial intelligence (AI) leasing platform and fraud prevention tool, which Chalmers likened to the aforementioned solutions in that they were quick to adapt to Mill Creek’s feedback and have become invaluable partners.

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