Without warning, Le’Toya Garland’s landlord tripled the common area maintenance fees she owed on her hip-hop dance studio in Aurora.

In June 2024, the $300 to $500 a month she had paid throughout her lease jumped to $1,693.

And while she managed to scrape together the funds to cover her new monthly tab — including the $2,900 she already owed in monthly rent — she couldn’t afford what came next: a $9,000 bill for back-charges she’d never been told she had to pay.

“It just showed up in our account,” said Garland, who co-owns the School of Breaking . “It was the first time ever that we’ve gotten a bill like that, and it was a very large amount of money for a small business to have to come up with in a short period of time.

“And,” she added, “there was no clear explanation of what the fe

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