Press Releases
Watchdog: DOJ Probe on Landlord Price-Fixing Good News for Price-Gouged Renters
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the latest in a series of Biden administration actions to help lower housing costs for struggling Americans, the U.S. Justice Department is reportedly “opening a criminal investigation” involving property management software company RealPage and some of its corporate landlord clients amid a lawsuit from the District of Columbia Attorney General alleging 14 district landlords “illegally raised rents for tens of thousands of residents by collectively sharing their data with [RealPage].”
In November, government watchdog Accountable.US sent letters to nine state Attorneys General urging them to look into whether the rental companies sued in D.C. for illegal rent-pricing fixing may also be engaging in the same behavior in their states where the companies also run thousands of rental properties — including North Carolina where earlier this month the Attorney General announced an investigation into RealPage “over concerns about anticompetitive conduct to raise the cost of rental housing.”
If the Biden administration finds these multi-state corporate landlords colluded to raise rents artificially and needlessly on families, it will ultimately bring down costs for many victims of the scheme. It’s one of many ways the Biden administration is cracking down on price-gouging corporate landlords who have no ceiling on rent increases or housing junk fees despite bragging about hundreds of millions of dollars in profits."
Accountable.US’ Liz Zelnick
“If big property companies had any intention of self-regulating their greed, they would have done it by now instead of inviting a housing affordability crisis. It’s why conservatives in Congress must quickly act on President Biden’s proposals to lower housing costs for everyday families – not obstruct them on behalf of their greedy landlord donors,” added Zelnick.
Last week, Accountable.US released a report showing major landlord companies continue to price-gouge despite through-the-roof profits.
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