WA AG files lawsuit against RealPage, 9 landlords: ‘Unfair practices are cheating renters’

Attorney General Nick Brown’s office filed a lawsuit Thursday against software company RealPage and several local landlords, claiming that they worked to suppress competition and harm Washington renters.

The suit, filed April 3 in King County Superior Court, accuses Texas-based RealPage and its property-management software of being key to the unfair-competition practices of certain landlords. Such purported actions led to fast-rising rental costs for tenants, the suit claims.

RealPage-using landlords hand over their data so that the company’s software will merge theirs with that of other landlords, Brown’s office says. Using the merged data, the algorithm will suggest rents, often increasing them.

Brown’s office alleges that software tools provided by RealPage nudge rent prices higher than what landlords could receive otherwise. At the same time, the software lowers the chance that other landlords will win out with better rates, according to the suit.

The Attorney General’s Office contends that, in markets where landlords use RealPage, occupancy is lower and prices are higher compared with similar landlords who don’t use the software.

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

Some 800,000 Washington leases from 2017 to 2024 were priced through RealPage software, according to the Attorney General’s Office. Six violations of the state’s Consumer Protection Act are posited in the lawsuit, which seeks restitution for a significant number of renters in Washington.

RealPage spokesperson Jennifer Bowcock told McClatchy via email that Brown “decided to recycle misleading and inaccurate allegations from predecessor cases, despite our efforts to constructively engage with his Office to help resolve their misunderstandings.”

The company’s revenue-management software is designed to be legally compliant and has always used data within the bounds of the law, she said.

“RealPage’s revenue management software uses data responsibly, aids compliance with Fair Housing laws, rent control laws and state of emergency price gouging laws and does not use any personal or demographic data to generate rent price recommendations,” Bowcock wrote.

‘Undermining the natural forces of competition’

Nearly half of renters in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area, 49%, spend more than a third of their earnings on rent, according to the lawsuit. That number is even higher — 53.1% — for tenants in the Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater area.

Rents in Washington have ballooned in recent years. About 47% of renter households saw rent prices rise by more than $100 per month in 2024, as noted in the complaint. Such prices shot up by more than $250 per month for 15% of renter households last year.

These rapid upticks frequently outpace wage increases, the lawsuit says, leaving many tenants scrambling to cover housing costs.

“RealPage and its landlord-clients have been central actors in this climate of constant and staggering rent increases,” the lawsuit says. “RealPage has built a business out of undermining the natural forces of competition.”

The Attorney General’s Office is trying to halt these practices and prevent RealPage and landlords from sharing a pricing algorithm and nonpublic, competitively sensitive information, according to a news release. Brown also wants to stop them from colluding and coordinating occupancy and pricing, the news release says.

But Bowcock said that RealPage believes Brown’s claims lack merit, and that such allegations won’t do anything to make housing more affordable.

“Washington state should stop scapegoating pro-competitive technology, and we encourage Washington state’s public leaders to focus on meeting the greater demand for housing with more supply,” Bowcock said.

House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, a Tacoma Democrat, voiced support for the lawsuit. She said the state Legislature has sought to improve housing affordability by passing dozens of bills over the past three years.

“I welcome AG Brown’s entry into this work and his willingness to fight against giant corporations using unfair algorithms across the state of Washington to jack up housing costs,” Jinkins said in a news release.

Another Tacoma Democrat, state Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, said she’s proud that Washington is acting to safeguard renters from this type of conspiracy and collusion.

“It is imperative that we prevent any company [from] taking advantage of Washington renters,” Trudeau said, “and that we do anything to prevent unnecessary and increased costs for people just trying to pay their rent and stay in their homes.”

© 2025 The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.). Visit www.TheNewsTribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.