DENVER — The U.S. Justice Department, Colorado, and nine other states have filed an amended lawsuit accusing six large landlords of conspiring to raise and keep rent high.
The antitrust lawsuit was initially filed last summer against RealPage, the primary provider of rental pricing algorithms. Companies like RealPage use their tools to suggest optimal rent for landlords to charge.
On Tuesday, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and the DoJ filed an amended lawsuit, adding Greystar, LivCor, Camden Property Trust, Cushman & Wakefield, Willow Bridge and Cortland. Illinois and Massachusetts joined the amended lawsuit, which was initially filed by California, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington.
All six landlords own or operate apartment buildings in Colorado. According to the Colorado Attorney General's Office, Greystar has 45,000 units across Colorado while Cortland operates at least 15 buildings.
The amended lawsuit claims the six landlords used RealPage to "set their rents using each other’s competitively sensitive information," which harmed renters.
- Read the amended lawsuit below
"If you're a tenant in a corporate landlord situation where RealPage is being used to basically take advantage of you, to force prices up, you need to know you've been taken advantage of, you've been mistreated," Weiser told Denver7 on Wednesday.
Weiser said he has two objectives for this case — stop corporate landlords from sharing private information to coordinate prices and negotiate a settlement.
"The sad reality is litigation takes time. So I don't want anyone to be expecting next week, next month, or even next year that there's some form of payment they're getting back," the attorney general explained.
Denver
White House report says rent algorithms raised costs for Denver renters
A White House report released last month shows Denver renters paid an extra $136 per month to landlords who used rent-setting algorithms.
The report estimates the nation's renters overpaid by $3.8 billion in 2023.
Drew Hamrick, general counsel with the Colorado Apartment Association, said these rent-setting tools help landlords determine what to charge in rent by using more accurate information than they could get otherwise.
"A computerized model allows you to get much more up-to-date information and much more relevant information," said Hamrick.
He said those tools end up helping renters by keeping prices at an accurate rate.
"That efficient market measuring is a critical tool to not underpricing a product but not overpricing it," said Hamrick. "And overpricing units is very damaging to the financial performance of a housing provider because every day the unit sits on the market unused is a day of rent that's lost."
A bill to ban rent algorithms in Colorado failed in 2024. The Colorado Apartment Association lobbied against the bill and expects lawmakers to try again this year.
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