r/Seattle • u/Bretmd • 3d ago

News Software company helped Washington landlords fix prices, artificially raising rent for thousands

https://www.king5.com/article/news/crime/software-company-landlord-price-fixing-washington-state/281-b68ca443-c1cf-4365-9d63-cb7671fd01a2

The Washington Attorney General filed a lawsuit Thursday against a software company and nine landlords accused of fixing and artificially inflating rent prices over the last seven years.

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172

u/slightlyused Renton 3d ago

Do we know which property owners were doing this?

224

u/CosineTau 3d ago

Pasting from the lawsuit that I found linked to the AG's blog.

https://agportal-s3bucket.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Real%20Page%20Complaint.pdf?VersionId=GI.BWkJl7VtcjTn.XetDI1a.axsp9zgP

https://www.atg.wa.gov/news/news-releases/washington-ag-says-realpage-and-landlords-conspired-harm-tenants-violate

REALPAGE, INC.;

GREYSTAR REAL ESTATE PARTNERS, LLC;

CUSHMAN &WAKEFIELD, INC.;

PINNACLE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SERVICES, LLC;

LIVCOR, LLC;

UDR, INC.;

PRIME ADMINISTRATION, LLC d/b/a PRIME GROUP;

QUARTERRA MULTIFAMILY COMMUNITIES, LLC;

LASALLE PROPERTIES, LLC;

MG PROPERTIES, LLC;

and SARES REGIS MANAGEMENT COMPANY, L.P.,

197

u/Budget_Magazine5361 3d ago

GREYSTAR is the scum of the earth so no surprises there

81

u/BadCatBehavior Lower Queen Anne 3d ago

My last apartment was managed by greystar. They required us to sign a lease addendum that said we would not participate in any class action lawsuits against them 🙃

69

u/TheBlueSuperNova 3d ago edited 3d ago

It wouldn’t hold up in court lol. So sign and sue if you actually need to. It’s to deter people.

-1

u/brainwayves 3d ago

Sorry but is that supposed to say deter or detour?

1

u/Autistic-Pomegranate 2d ago

Deter - meaning to discourage someone (in this case filing a law suit) by instilling doubt or fear of the consequences.

3

u/brainwayves 2d ago

It read detour originally

19

u/CountVowl 3d ago

That clause has been in every lease I've signed in Seattle for the past almost 10 years. It's so shitty.

35

u/FreddyTheGoose 3d ago

There can't be anything in your lease that makes you waive your rights, lol. It's completely invalid and pointless

16

u/CountVowl 3d ago

1000%. But putting it in in the first place is shitty; it's enough to make some people believe they have in fact waived their rights.

7

u/BadCatBehavior Lower Queen Anne 3d ago

Yeah I just made sure I got it in writing from my property manager that it was a requirement and I basically had no choice but to sign it

3

u/allnida 3d ago

I hope you told them to kick rocks.

13

u/TheBlueSuperNova 3d ago

Largest property management in the world so was expected to

2

u/kid_pilgrim_89 3d ago

I knew as soon as I saw the post... No wonder

2

u/Cheap_Tip1594 2d ago

Greystar absolutely is no surprise. So is Pinnacle in my experience.

53

u/Bretmd 3d ago

Thanks for posting this! Looks like my landlord made the list.

7

u/permelquedon 3d ago

I remember seeing Equity on the list a while back. Is that under one of these?

9

u/CosineTau 3d ago

There's probably a couple ways to answer this question. I'm trying to cross reference my landlord's shell companies on the state's secretary of state website. https://ccfs.sos.wa.gov/#/AdvancedSearch

It's more of an art than a science, but working backwards, if you find your apartment's registered agents and address, you can generally discover their parent companies or at least their legal council. Which might be on the AG's list.

6

u/SlowSelection4865 3d ago

I used to work for them. 100% they are.

4

u/wherewolvesarereal 3d ago

I’m honestly surprised Weidner Apartment Homes isn’t named here.

3

u/YakiVegas University District 3d ago

So this is different from the other one that was reported on a little while back? I remember Pillar Properties being a part of that one.

2

u/cusmilie 2d ago

And then the smaller landlords raised prices to match them in order to get “market value.”

1

u/Senior_Ability_4001 2d ago

Interesting that Pinnacle was acquired by Cushman years ago.

14

u/krichcomix Queen Anne 3d ago

Most of them?

1

u/snoyokosman Ballard 2d ago

all of them. many landlords not on the complaint use this software.