Lawsuit Accuses RealPage of Conspiring With Landlords To Raise Rents

Washington Attorney General brought claims against the real estate software platform, indicating that RealPage algorithms are designed to cheat renters.

The state of Washington is accusing real estate software company RealPage of using a pricing scheme and conspiring with landlords to force renters to pay higher-than-market prices.

Attorney General Nick Brown filed the complaint (PDF) against RealPage, Inc. and several Washington-based real estate property and management companies in King County Superior Court on April 3, indicating that RealPage’s software tools are rigged to allow landlords to regularly overcharge tenants.

RealPage is a technology company known for its real estate software, which assists property owners and managers in screening residents, setting rents, managing utilities, and more.

In recent months, evidence has emeged that suggests RealPage uses an artificial algorithm to illegally conspire with landlords to set high rent prices. As a result, Washington state, North Carolina, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Oregon joined together in January 2025, in a RealPage antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

However, according to a press release issued this month, Washington state has removed itself from that antitrust claim, to file its most recent complaint individually.

In addition to the claims being pursued by state and federal governments, a growing number of individual renters are also pursuing RealPage lawsuits for a variety of reasons, raising similar claims about the alleged unfairness and inaccuracies of the software’s algorithms.

Like other lawsuits filed against the company, the state of Washington is alleging that RealPage’s software tools give landlords a shared logic that results in higher rent prices.

“Two types of RealPage’s pricing software collect nonpublic, competitively sensitive data from landlords to feed the algorithms,” the press release states. “Landlords who use RealPage software agree to provide their data, knowing that the software combines their data with data from other landlords. The algorithm then recommends rents — in many cases increasing them.”

The lawsuit indicates RealPage discourages pro-renter practices like price negotiations, and instead recommends the highest possible prices, and even forces landlords to enter an explanation when they set a lower price than RealPage’s suggestions.

The software also allowed landlords to vote on changes to the software, and develop anticompetitive strategies, the lawsuit claims.

“RealPage’s unfair practices are cheating renters and pricing families out of stable housing,” Attorney General Nick Brown said in the press release. “Washington is facing a housing crisis and we must respond with every available tool.”