Watchdog letters to state attorneys general call for investigations into alleged rent-fixing and RealPage-linked business owners operating in their states

WASHINGTON DC. — Nonpartisan business watchdog group Accountable.US sent letters to state attorneys general California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New JerseyAnd new York (Click on states to view letter) urging their offices to investigate whether large rental companies that were prosecuted in Washington DC for allegedly illegally fixing rental prices, they may be engaging in the same behavior in their states, where many of these same companies also operate thousands of rental properties.

This effort follows that of Accountable.US new national report which found that the six largest publicly traded apartment companies reported a combined increase of nearly $300 million in profits in the first quarter of 2024, largely driven by significant rent increases. The six owners… Mid-America Apartments, AvalonBay Communities, Equity Residential, Essex Property Trust, Camden Property Trust and UDR – have been prosecuted in connection with their alleged data collusion via property management software company, RealPage.

EXTRACTS FROM THE LETTER FROM ACCOUNTABLE.US PRESIDENT, CAROLINE CICCONE:

I'm following a letter Our organization sent a letter on November 8, 2023 encouraging your office to examine the business dealings of major rental companies operating in California that were among the fourteen landlords sued by the office of District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb for allegations they “illegally raised the rents of tens of thousands of residents by collectively sharing their data with (property management software company RealPage). »

We know your office is committed to doing its part to help California residents who struggle, through no fault of their own, to meet high housing costs – costs fueled in many cases by large landlords who prefer to rip off tenants and put profits before people.

AvalonBay, Residential Equity, And Camden Real Estate Trust are among the business owners involved in the D.C. lawsuit with links to California, which is our concern, could engage in price fixing elsewhere given their stories alleged excessive profits and misconduct.

Our concerns have only grown with Reports that on May 22, 2024, the Federal Bureau of Investigation led a raid on Atlanta-based rental company Cortland Management – ​​which represented a “significant escalation” in US Justice Department policy investigation at software and consulting company RealPage. In addition to the lawsuit filed by the Attorney General of the District of Columbia, RealPage is now the subject of other lawsuits and investigations by consumers and state attorneys general Arizona And North Carolina for allegedly helping big landlords inflate rent prices for millions of Americans across the United States

The question we asked in November remains: If these companies were willing to engage in price-fixing while surrounded by federal and local regulators in the nation's capital and other states, why wouldn't they? aren't they the same in California?

(…)

And yet these giant landlord companies have continued to push the limits of their greed, raising rents on ordinary families no matter how much their profits have increased. Their own earnings reports reveal that the recent rent hikes were unnecessary after they touted to investors a massive increase in profits over the previous year while handsomely rewarding a small group of wealthy investors with gifts like stock buybacks.

Your office has the ability to determine whether these companies also engaged in illegal price-fixing and collusion in California to further increase their profits, as they allegedly did elsewhere – and the power to hold them accountable if they were doing it. Seriously tackling the sky-high housing prices that have prevented so many families from prospering will require not only strong action by Congress and continued efforts of The Biden administration has said that if regulators at all levels do their part to crack down on illicit behavior in the housing sector, it could only help reduce costs.

###