How does property upkeep work, and what happens if it isn't paid?

Upkeep is a daily fee plus staff fees, and the wiki says it can be paid by you and/or your spouse^[1]. TornLife's findings say the fees build up on the property rather than coming out of your wallet, and that after a threshold of unpaid fees the property's max happy gradually falls. No source shows eviction from an owned property.

How upkeep is charged

• Whether you own or lease, daily upkeep and staff fees apply^[1].
• TornLife's findings say that since the 2015 system, fees are charged to the property and build up. They can be paid at any time through the properties system. Before that, upkeep was deducted nightly even without funds, so players often logged in to a negative balance. These 2015 developer statements have no source document in this pack.
• Daily upkeep with no staff and fully upgraded: Trailer $10, Apartment $25, Mansion $500, Ranch $1,000, Palace $3,000, Castle $10,000, Private Island $100,000^[2].
• With staff, Villa and below are unchanged (Villa $350). From the Penthouse up it is far higher: Penthouse $47,950, Mansion $198,000, Castle $232,500, and a fully upgraded Private Island $352,500^[3].
• Findings report patch 16/04/19: hiring staff adds payable upkeep immediately, and staff can be hired or fired at any time. This is not backed by a source document in this pack.
• Findings say a 7* Lingerie Store job for either spouse waives upkeep and staff costs for the residence, and existing debt stops growing but is not cancelled. The supplied S1 text does not contain this, so treat it as unconfirmed here.

If it is not paid: owners

Per the developer's 2015 statements in TornLife's findings, fees can build up for many weeks before any repercussion. The upkeep icon on the properties page changes colour and/or flashes as fees grow. After a threshold, the property's max happy gradually decreases, down to 0 over a long period. Lower max happy matters because a property's main purpose is maximising max Happy^[4].

The wiki formula in the findings is (upkeep - 0.1 * property_cost) / property_cost * 2.5, with the threshold at 10% of the original value without upgrades. The supplied S1 text does not show it. A 2024 wiki capture, in the findings, gives Private Island figures: a 50 million threshold, happy falling 1% after it, and reaching 0 at 200 million unpaid. That is consistent with 10% of $500,000,000^[2]. It is an older capture, and wording for other properties was not found.

An owner overwhelmed by fees can, per the findings, sell the property back to the estate agents with the fees deducted from the sale value. No eviction or loss of an owned property for unpaid fees appears in the sources.

Renters and spouses

• A lease is paid entirely upfront, with no daily fees paid to the landlord^[5]. The occupant is still charged upkeep while living there^[1].
• A player reported being charged upkeep for a property owned and lived in by their spouse. Another said it is charged as long as someone lives there. These are player reports with no source document in this pack.
• If a renter has not paid all upkeep when the rental ends, the findings say the fees pass to Duke as debt and the renter pays him instead. A 2019 player report says this debt is counted with loans.
• Players also reported upkeep bugs in 2015, 2018 and 2019, including a double charge and a balance still owing after paying the exact amount. No fixes are shown.

Whether upkeep can be paid in advance is unresolved. A 2015 player got "You do not have this amount of money", which suggests only accrued fees can be paid. The 2015 rules and 2019 patches come from findings without source documents here, so they may have changed since.