RealPage Rent Pricing Lawsuit Seeks Damages for Tenants Charged Inflated Rents

Lawsuit alleges RealPage provided landlords with algorithmic software that used rental data to recommend prices, lease terms and occupancy levels.

A Seattle renter has filed a class action lawsuit alleging RealPage and one of the nation’s largest apartment owners violated a city ordinance by using algorithmic rent-setting software that artificially increased prices.

The complaint (PDF) was brought by Bryant Romano in King County Superior Court on July 6, naming UDR Inc. and RealPage Inc. as defendants. The case was removed to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on August 5.

Romano seeks class action status to pursue damages on behalf of hundreds of Seattle tenants who rented apartments owned or managed by UDR after a new city ordinance took effect last year.

RealPage Rent Pricing Concerns

RealPage provides technology and software services for the real estate industry, offering property owners and managers tools for tenant screening, rent pricing, utility management and other operations.

However, RealPage has faced allegations in recent years that its algorithmic pricing software allows competing landlords to coordinate rental rates, potentially driving housing costs higher than they would be in a competitive market. Those claims have resulted in a federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) before Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr. in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, where renters allege property owners shared sensitive market data and relied on common pricing recommendations rather than independently determining rents.

These allegations have prompted a growing number of renters, state officials and the federal government to pursue RealPage lawsuits, claiming the company’s rent-setting algorithms have contributed to unfair or artificially inflated housing costs.

RealPage Rent Fixing Allegations

According to Romano’s complaint, Seattle enacted an ordinance last year prohibiting landlords and software companies from using certain algorithmic services to coordinate rental prices. Lawmakers adopted the restrictions amid concerns that algorithmic pricing services were reducing competition between landlords and artificially increasing rents in an already expensive housing market. 

The law prohibits landlords from paying a service provider that collects rental information from multiple landlords and processes the data through algorithms or other automated systems to recommend rental prices, lease renewal terms or occupancy levels. It likewise prohibits service providers from offering those coordinating services to multiple landlords. The ordinance took effect July 31, 2025.

However, Romano contends UDR continued contracting with RealPage for those services after the prohibition went into effect.

Court filings indicate UDR previously acknowledged using RealPage’s YieldStar software to help manage certain multifamily properties. YieldStar and RealPage’s newer AIRM software use landlord data to generate pricing recommendations for apartment floor plans and individual units.

The lawsuit alleges RealPage collects competitively sensitive, real-time information from participating landlords, including occupancy rates, lease terms and rent rolls, then uses that information to generate pricing recommendations. It claims the system allows competing apartment operators to indirectly coordinate rents rather than independently determine what to charge tenants.

“Economists find that RealPage’s algorithmic software inflates rental prices. The Council of Economic Advisers to the Biden administration quantified that algorithmic pricing in rental housing increased costs to Seattle renters by $65 per month on average.”

— Bryant Romano v. UDR Inc. et al.

Romano seeks to represent hundreds of individuals who rented apartments owned or managed by UDR or its affiliates in Seattle from the time the city’s algorithmic pricing restrictions took effect through the date a judgment is entered. UDR indicated in its removal notice that it owns or manages 686 Seattle apartment units.

Seattle’s ordinance allows individuals injured by violations to seek actual damages, as well as statutory damages of up to $7,500 for each violation. Each instance of prohibited coordinating services involving an individual dwelling unit may constitute a separate violation.

In seeking to move the case to federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act, RealPage and UDR calculated that potential statutory damages could exceed $5.1 million if $7,500 were awarded for each of UDR’s 686 Seattle apartments. They also calculate that the alleged $65 monthly rent increase could amount to nearly $500,000 in actual damages for the first 11 months the ordinance was in effect.

However, the companies deny they violated the law or caused Romano and other tenants to suffer any damages.

The lawsuit raises allegations of violations of Seattle Municipal Code. It seeks actual and statutory damages, attorneys’ fees, costs and other relief the court considers appropriate.

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