Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown filed a lawsuit accusing RealPage Inc. and six landlords operating in Maryland of colluding to raise rents in violation of the state’s antitrust law.
According to a statement from Brown, RealPage and the landlords named in the lawsuit “worked together to raise the cost of their apartments, making it hard for Maryland renters to put a roof over their heads.”
As described in the lawsuit, Richardson, Texas-based RealPage is accused of providing software that served as a centralized system shared by the six landlords that inflated rents, “causing residents to pay millions of dollars more than they would have in a competitive market.”
Under the scheme, according to the suit, the six landlords agreed “to forgo price competition with one another,” and Brown called the agreement “anticompetitive by design.”
The six landlords named in the lawsuit are Morgan Properties Management Company LLC, Bozzuto Management Company, Greystar Management Services LLC, AvalonBay Communities Inc., UDR Inc., and Highmark Residential LLC.
The groups operate 100,000 units across the state, with two major markets in the D.C. and Baltimore areas. Bozzuto, for example, has properties in Silver Spring, Germantown, College Park and Annapolis. Greystar has properties in North Bethesda, Columbia, Hyattsville and Largo.
According to the lawsuit, the result of the agreement between RealPage and the six landlords includes raising rents by up to $130 per month.
A similar lawsuit against RealPage and 14 residential landlords was filed by D.C.’s Attorney General Brian Schwalb in 2023.
WTOP has reached out to RealPage for comment.
In June of 2024, RealPage posted a statement on its website addressing what it called a “false narrative” related to its revenue management software.
“Starting in October 2022, false and misleading claims about RealPage and its revenue management software have been reported to the media and in legal filings. These factual inaccuracies threaten to undermine the essential benefits RealPage’s solutions provide to both renters and housing providers. In fact, RealPage’s revenue management software contributes to a healthier and more efficient rental housing ecosystem,” the statement reads in part.
The company also said its software makes price recommendations in all directions — up, down or no change — “to align with property-specific objectives of the housing providers using the software,” and that it serves a much smaller portion of the rental market than what has been “falsely alleged.”
Greystar didn’t respond to Maryland’s lawsuit, but forwarded a statement regarding a different suit, one filed by the Department of Justice, which added Greystar to its lawsuit against RealPage.
“We are disappointed that the DOJ added us and other operators to their lawsuit against RealPage. Greystar has and will conduct its business with the utmost integrity. At no time did Greystar engage in any anti-competitive practices. We will vigorously defend ourselves in this lawsuit,” the statement read.