In his first few days in office, N.C. Attorney General Jeff Jackson is tackling landlords over illegal price-fixing. According to the state Attorney General’s office, AG Jackon is suing six landlords for illegally working together and with the software company RealPage to raise rent prices for North Carolina residents.
The six accused landlords are Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC, Blackstone’s LivCor LLC, Camden Property Trust, Cushman & Wakefield Inc and Pinnacle Property Management Services LLC, Willow Bridge Property Company LLC, and Cortland Management LLC.
These six landlords own or manage more than 70,000 units throughout the state, mostly in the Triangle and Charlotte-Mecklenburg. An analysis from The Washington Post found that 34 percent of multifamily housing units in the Durham-Chapel Hill area and 43 percent in the Raleigh-Cary area were owned by companies that used RealPage’s services.
The lawsuit is part of a multi-state bipartisan case against RealPage, a software company. RealPage is accused of exploiting landlords’ competitively sensitive information to create a pricing algorithm in violation of antitrust laws.
AG Jackson’s case alleges that these landlords communicated with RealPage and each other to share non-public information about rent prices, occupancy, and strategies for setting rents—ultimately, enriching themselves at the expense of renters who had to pay inflated prices.
“North Carolinians are struggling to afford their rent as it is – we won’t stand for landlords and real estate companies making the problem worse to line their own pockets,” stated Attorney General Jeff Jackson, in a press release. “I’m suing these landlords to make sure they play by the rules so North Carolinians can get fair prices for rent”.
