Speaker 1: In the U.S., the typical home in an HOA pays between $200 and $300 per month in fees.

Speaker 2: They act as hyperlocal governments and in many ways supersede all the other laws that exist when you sign into a covenant that runs with the

Speaker 3: land. Home insurance companies are saying homes are too risky to

Speaker 4: insure. Losses are increasing related to climate risk. As that risk increases, so does the cost of insuring those assets that

Speaker 5: people have on you. A group of large landlords is now being sued for their approach to business.

Speaker 6: RealPage is facilitating a housing cartel.

Speaker 7: There's not enough housing in the U.S. So guys like us that own 80,000 well-located apartments, we're still in a

Speaker 8: pretty good spot. The software takes empathy out of the equation.

Speaker 1: 84% of newly built single-family homes sold in 2022 belong to what's called a homeowners association, which are organizations that oversee properties in a community.

Speaker 9: Certain local governments require almost all new construction to have an

Speaker 2: HOA. They're rooted in the desire for municipalities to offload their responsibilities for taking care of things that you would normally associate with paying your taxes.

Speaker 10: Homeowners associations provide value to owners.

Speaker 1: But there's been a backlash to HOAs because of some homeowners' negative

Speaker 11: experiences. When I first bought this house, I was very excited. Seemed like it was a very nice, cozy, close-knit community.

Speaker 12: And then it started turning into a horror story. I'm a huge believer that, you know, you do sign away your civil rights when you're signing into an HOA or a condo association.

Speaker 13: It's a matter of personal preference. Some people like anchovies on their pizza and some don't. Some people really like living in homeowners associations. Others don't like it.

Speaker 1: So why are HOAs so powerful? And do they make homes more valuable? Homeowners associations are run by a board of directors that's made up of volunteers who own property in the community. The HOA typically handles communal responsibilities, which can vary from managing amenities such as swimming pools to making sure property owners follow home maintenance rules. The board may hire a management company, which tend to be for-profit, to help run the day-to-day operations. Homeowners in the community pay into a fund for the HOA to have an operating budget. In the U.S., the typical home in an HOA pays between $200 and $300 per month in fees. HOAs have the authority to hand out fines to residents in the community that the association feels is not following the rules. Those fines may also accrue interest in some cases. The Innistros' annual dues for their HOA in Newnan, Georgia, is $200 per year, which is lower than the national average. So on paper, their HOA membership doesn't seem like that much of a financial burden. But that's not been their reality.

Speaker 11: When we moved in in 2008, we found out that there was a balance that was attached to the home because it had been sitting in the community and they were fining us for that balance and late fees and any other type of fines that they would put onto the home for lawn care or anything. All of that was attached to this home when we moved in.

Speaker 14: From 2008-2014, we tried getting in contact with the HOA and we never had a reply from them. And we just kept trying and no answer.

Speaker 1: By August 2015, the HOA put a lien on the Innistros' home. In the court documents, the HOA said the Innistros' owed more than $1,600. A lien is when a party has a legal claim to an asset, such as a home, which can serve as collateral to satisfy unpaid debt. This can open the door to the HOA escalating to the next level of debt collection, such as foreclosing on the home or, in the Innistros' case, garnishing wages.

Speaker 11: In mid-2015, they started garnishing my wages. The first time I learned of that was when I got my first paycheck that they garnished. I didn't get any prior notice. I got a notice two weeks after.

Speaker 1: Even though the HOA was collecting from Jewel's paycheck, invoices filed with the court showed they were adding fines rather than deducting from the overall balance. By December 2016, the HOA said the Innistros' owed more than $4,300.

Speaker 11: In 2016, I decided to go into debtors court. My attorney and the HOA's attorney came to an agreement that I would pay $3,200. We paid in installments and we finally paid that off in January

Speaker 14: of this year. But it seemed like it never got to the management or the homeowner's situation. Just adding fines and adding interest. That's all they were doing.

Speaker 11: So they were still saying that I owed almost $8,000, while my attorney and their attorney agreed on $3,000 something.

Speaker 1: The Innistros' estimate that they've paid about $12,000 in fines and garnished wages to the HOA, along with thousands of dollars in legal fees to their own attorneys. The latest invoice they received on August 18th, 2023 says they still hold a balance.

Speaker 11: Even after paying $12,000, they're still saying that we owe them $8,000.

Speaker 14: After the past, well, 23, after the past 10 years, 10, yeah, about 10

Speaker 1: years, yeah. CNBC reached out to Homeowners Management LLC for comment and received automated responses directing us to contact the current management company. As of August 2023, a representative from the current management company, Sentry Management, told CNBC, because it just became the management company for this community in the last couple of months, Sentry has little ability to comment on historical facts regarding the Innistros' case. The former director of the HOA board, who oversaw the association from 2020 until her resignation in October 2023, declined CNBC's request for comment. The attorneys representing the HOA board did not respond to CNBC's repeated requests for comment. Jessica Navas and Matt Bazone, who are also homeowners in the subdivision, began investigating their HOA.

Speaker 15: I started to have this feeling that there was something odd about the HOA during the pandemic.

Speaker 1: They discovered a history of at least 25 foreclosures in the community over the past 15 years.

Speaker 15: Just one house can have a record between two to three foreclosures within that time frame.

Speaker 11: Jessica Haddon just took the initiative to go to everyone in the community that she knew were homeowners. We never would have known any of this because all we did was basically go to work, come home, raise our children. That's it. And we never knew that anybody else was going through this because for the longest, I felt like, is it just me?

Speaker 14: I feel like HOA could be a positive thing when the community work together, keeping houses looking good and good for property value.

Speaker 1: A big part of an HOA sales pitch is that the presence of the organization can help increase property values.

Speaker 10: The board is responsible for protecting property values. For most people in the United States, the single biggest investment they're

Speaker 1: ever going to make. There's mixed evidence about whether this is true. A 2019 study found that on average HOA homes cost at least 4 percent more than non-HOA homes. That comes out to an extra $13,500. But those property values can vary significantly by location. A different 2019 analysis of three U.S. cities found that the home values in HOA areas were less than those in neighborhoods without them. The Innistros' property value has increased between the time they bought it in 2008 following the housing crash to 2023.

Speaker 11: I don't think that HOA has anything to do with that property value going up.

Speaker 14: I feel with the HOA, the management company don't increase the property value. They're just there as employees, the community, they increase the value of the property.

Speaker 1: HOAs can also be necessary in order to manage shared amenities or land, which can be a value add for homeowners.

Speaker 10: There are associations out there that handle all the landscaping. Even though you may own your lot, the association cuts the grass and they do all the landscaping. So is that a cost saving?

Speaker 1: Sure. Management companies can help a community function smoothly, especially when a board of volunteers needs assistance.

Speaker 13: One large company will manage 20 or 30 or 40 HOAs in a region. And they tend to have it down to a science. They know how to deal with trash pickup. They know how to deal with yard maintenance. They know how to deal with complaints. They have their fines and their enforcement down to a science.

Speaker 16: Relying too much on a property management company is going to cause problems and relying too much on the homeowners to run their own association is also going to cause problems.

Speaker 10: The management company and the manager are simply a contractor to carry out the board's direction. They may handle all of that routine activity on behalf of the board. But those folks who live in the community and volunteer remain the decision making authority. The board in that situation is still responsible. They are still the fiduciary. They are legally and financially responsible for the decision making in that community.

Speaker 17: I think that there are times and places for HOAs, and I think that they could be positive. But the abuse negates that benefit.

Speaker 2: A lot of people have trouble thinking of community associations as a business, even though statutorily in many cases they are. You have to think about it like running a business. At the same time, you have to think about it from the perspective of a group of investors who all have this shared goal of making sure their investment's safe. And nobody's quite sure how to do that. And when you bring in an outside advisor to help run your organization, those people's goals are not the same as the goals of the people who made the initial

Speaker 1: investment. Professional involvement in HOAs is increasing, with the for-profit homeowner association industry growing to $38 billion. Jessica and Matt have been fighting for more transparency about where their HOA

Speaker 17: fines are going. We had four months of pulling teeth. We wanted a general ledger, but they gave us a balance sheet and a budget.

Speaker 15: We contracted a forensic audit of CPA. It is very concerning to see that the amount of income that they are receiving is coming from these particular aspects, fines, citations, collection, legal fees. And her recommendation was remove the board, freeze the account, get access into the bank account. The numbers don't align with each other.

Speaker 10: In most cases, association management companies charge a flat fee for their management services for the association each month. They're not getting a share of the proceeds. That's not how they're compensated.

Speaker 11: If we didn't have a management company, we wouldn't have to be dealing with these different problems that we're having. Basically, they're just milking the community.

Speaker 1: The Innistros' experience with their HOA highlights some patterns seen across the country when it comes to how much power HOAs have. 57 percent of homeowners polled disliked living in an HOA, with more than three in 10 homeowners saying they feel like the HOA has too much power.

Speaker 12: People need to understand how much power a board of directors has. Governments are giving the power of the municipality to these communities.

Speaker 2: They act as hyperlocal governments and in many ways supersede all the other laws that exist when you sign into a covenant that runs with the land.

Speaker 1: Covenants is shorthand for Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions, or CCNRs. These are documents that outline the HOA board and homeowners' rights and obligations. A homeowner's association usually enacts the CCNRs as well as the bylaws that outline procedural matters when it's incorporated by the subdivision

Speaker 2: developer. The board in the beginning is controlled by the developer. So it starts out as a board of people that are paid on behalf of the developer to operate that community. And it transitions 100 percent of the time. In some cases, it takes years. In other cases, it might only take one or two years to a set of volunteers.

Speaker 1: Homeowners who have disputes with their HOA say they have trouble getting help from official government channels.

Speaker 15: I have personally contacted the city officials. None of them want to get involved in the HOA.

Speaker 9: There are only seven states that have an office of HOA Ombudsman. Colorado, Delaware, South Carolina, Florida, Illinois, Nevada and Virginia. However, the Ombudsman office is usually not very well funded and they have limited jurisdiction over the types of complaints they can take. And in some cases, that's all the Ombudsman office can do is take your complaint. They can't even take an active role in investigating or resolving the complaint.

Speaker 16: As far as the regulation goes, I think a lot of that regulation is predetermined. So in other words, there's already laws that are set up in place. And so inherently, they're already being regulated that way. And of course, you've got the court systems for checks and balances in case you have a disagreement within your homeowners association.

Speaker 12: I think that education is really key to these communities. I mean, they need to know that there's nobody that's going to help them, that in a lot of cases, civil court is the only answer. So you can't even take some of these communities to small claims court.

Speaker 2: There's really a very limited number of scenarios where a court can say that something that's binding in your covenants is not valid.

Speaker 1: Lawmakers in several states such as Texas, North Carolina and Florida have introduced policies to address some of the issues homeowners have been raising. But it's been met with backlash from the professional management industry.

Speaker 10: There's always going to be a wide variety of perspectives and concerns. So no solution, no bill, no piece of advocacy is ever going to garner 100 percent support from everyone. We try to find the best middle ground that makes sure the association runs effectively and people's investments are protected.

Speaker 1: As of right now, change has to happen at the grassroots level, with homeowners fighting through the court system as well as through voting for a board they feel represents them. Matt was elected president of the board in October 2023.

Speaker 17: So these are your new officers.

Speaker 15: Thank you very much. I did the oath when I became a naturalized citizen. It was my duty. And regardless of my economical condition, I have to fight for them.

Speaker 11: I would feel bad, you know, selling this home to someone else, especially if they don't know what's been going on in the neighborhood. And I feel like I would probably just be like, hey, look, I don't think you want to move in this neighborhood. You may want to think about it.

Speaker 18: Love this house. It was our dream house from the beginning. Even thought it was over our heads, but we just worked really hard and made it become our own. And I love it. I have my horses here. I have a hundred pound tortoise that I saved. But yeah, I just love it. It couldn't be more perfect for us.

Speaker 3: But Allstate, who insured Darlene's house for 18 years, recently sent her a non-renewal notice.

Speaker 18: You can't just say after 18 years of being OK, all of a sudden today you're not OK

Speaker 3: and that's it. Home insurance companies are saying homes like Darlene's are too risky to insure. The nation's largest homeowners insurance company, State Farm, has decided they won't accept new applications for property in California.

Speaker 19: Household names like State Farm, Allstate, pulling out of these markets, they know the risk is just too high to be actuarially selling for their business.

Speaker 3: There are companies saying there are too many buildings being destroyed by catastrophes. Inflation is making it too expensive to rebuild and they can't protect their investments any longer.

Speaker 4: Losses are increasing related to climate risk. As that risk increases, so does the cost of insuring those assets that people

Speaker 3: have on hand. But without homeowners insurance, many homeowners can find

Speaker 18: themselves in big financial trouble. I've been trying to find another insurance. I had one company step up and said they'd do it for $12,000 a year. I go from $2,000 to $12,000. Yeah, we would have to move. There's no way. But selling the home might not even be possible.

Speaker 19: The moment that an individual gets a non-renewal letter from the private insurance market, they essentially lose 12 percent of their property value.

Speaker 3: It's not just California. Louisiana and Florida are contending with similar issues due to flood risk. Why are so many American houses becoming uninsurable? And what will it mean for the economy when so many homes lose some of their value? Darlene bought her house for $420,000 at the behest of one of her best

Speaker 18: friends. My girlfriend that I've known for close to 40 years, she's the one that brought me to this. She's lived two doors down and she said, you have to buy this house. So I had really no choice, but it's the best thing I've ever did. It's just three bedroom, two bath, and it's only probably 1,700 square feet. You know, it's just perfect. No, I'm an outside person anyway. So what's the most perfect is the outside. I have a huge pasture for the horses and the backyard. I had an artist come and she painted all my animals on my back fence. So when I go sit in my little girl area where we have a little glass of wine, all my animals, even the ones I've lost, are all painted on the side of the barn. It's just beautiful.

Speaker 3: Darlene and her husband still owe about $360,000 on their mortgage. Most mortgage lenders require home insurance as a prerequisite for the loan. And 58 percent of Americans hold mortgages on their homes.

Speaker 4: You are allowed to live in your home without insurance. That would be called self-insurance. It depends on your financial situation whether or not that is a good or risky choice. Insurance acts as a risk transfer tool. So in order to make sure that that investment that the bank is making with you, should something happen, a catastrophe, a natural catastrophe or a manmade catastrophe, if it happens, the insurance allows the home to recover.

Speaker 3: The insurance business model works like this. Companies assess the risk of damage happening to a home and collect a premium accordingly. By insuring properties with varying levels of risk, they are able to spread the liability for the riskiest assets among the whole group. They reserve some funds to pay out claims and invest others. They typically make their profits via safely held investments.

Speaker 4: The insurance rate is a reflection of the risk. Insurance rates are the effect of the risk, not the cause. So the insurance company, in order to operate its business as it should in a profitable manner, needs to do what it can to get those insurance rates to better reflect the risk.

Speaker 3: Now, insurers are saying climate change, inflation and the regulatory environment have created a situation where it's difficult to operate a profitable business in some locations across the country.

Speaker 19: Private insurance companies are withdrawing insurance in high risk areas due to climate risk. And people are seeing their premiums increase in the public

Speaker 3: market. Every state has seen an increase, but 12 states have seen their average premiums more than double.

Speaker 19: Insurance is regulated at the state level.

Speaker 3: Some researchers refer to aspects of the regulation as premium suppression, which may result in climate risk not being fully priced into the market. For example, look at Prop 103.

Speaker 4: Proposition 103 in the state of California was something that was passed all the way back in the 80s.

Speaker 19: In California, due to the regulatory policies, essentially don't allow climate to be included in the calculation of insurance premiums. But they also set a limit on what the increase can be year over year. So the current limit is about 7 percent. Anything at 7 percent or higher has to go in front of the insurance commissioner. It has to be approved in front of the board. That can take a long time.

Speaker 4: If they can't charge the adequate rate for the insurance, it just simply doesn't make sense to do business there.

Speaker 3: Which leaves people like Darlene with non-renewal notices and the remainder of their mortgage debt in their hands. Individual homeowners have a few options if traditional homeowners insurance becomes unavailable.

Speaker 4: If you receive a non-renewal notice, there are always options to have more insurance. Depending on where you live, you can go into residual markets, excess markets. These markets will have a higher cost of the insurance. The rates are not a regulatory approved like the standard market would be. However, it is an option.

Speaker 18: I've been trying to find another insurance. No one will even step up to the plate. I had one company step up and said they'd do it for $12,000 a year. I go from $2,000 to $12,000. Yeah, we would have to move. There's no way. We're retired.

Speaker 4: Some states also have government-assisted insurance options as well, a social welfare program, if you will.

Speaker 3: Thirty-two states and Washington, D.C., have created insurers of last resort.

Speaker 19: The state fare program in California that is the state-run insurer of last resort for properties that have extreme wildfire risk, cannot get insurance in the private insurance market.

Speaker 3: Darlene's insurance agent told her that the fare plan would be very expensive

Speaker 18: in her case. The guy that was my guy for 18 years said that he won't even he won't even recommend or quote with the fare plan because he says unfair plan. $12,000 is not really a fair plan in my estimation either, because he was quoting even the deductibles. Even on the $12,000 a year, the deductibles were like $15,000 if this happens. I'm like, well, what's the point of that?

Speaker 19: In the case of California, just for example, the average cost of the state fare plan premium is about $3,200.

Speaker 4: Quite honestly, the government does not do insurance well. And even more so, it extends the burden to the taxpayer or it puts it back on the insurers who are operating in the individual states.

Speaker 3: Darlene's insurance agent said that any wildfire protection tactics that she tries to do won't impact the insurer's decision not to renew her coverage.

Speaker 18: On paper, they said I'm in a fire area. And we have a wooden fence that's connected to the house that has been connected to the house forever. They said that's a you know, so they did notice note some things like that. So that's why I called and said, well, if I would just we'll just change the fence out. You know, I I just paid like $7,000 to have trees trimmed. If they need to be trimmed more, I could do that. I mean, what can I do? And he absolutely said there's nothing I can do. Meanwhile, climate change keeps getting worse. When I first moved up here 18 years ago, we certainly didn't have fires that we had. We didn't have any fires this last summer. It was wonderful. But I mean, a smoke came in pretty bad there for two to three years, I guess. And that was like upsetting me.

Speaker 3: Since 2009, there has been a 270 percent increase in the cost of wildfires and a 335 percent increase in the number of structures destroyed by wildfires. And for every additional building destroyed, there is an associated 1.9 additional non-renewal notices issued from an insurance company.

Speaker 19: Florida is a state where the largest insurance company in the entire state now is the state-run Citizens Insurance Agency. So today, the most at-risk properties are on that insurer of last resort and it's become the largest insurer of the state, which is crazy to think about. All of the risk that exists in the state is on one single insurance company's role. And if there were to be some issue with that, now the state has to step in.

Speaker 3: Communities may need to rethink how they use insurance to account for climate

Speaker 4: risk. If you look at some other states who are beginning to look at ways that they can take a more collective and communal approach to risk management, you're seeing very different circumstances. I think the state of Alabama is a very good example of a state where the government and policymakers have embraced the understanding of what is causing this increased risk. How can we help manage, better manage that risk? And they're allowing consumers to take grants, up to $40,000 for a government grant to make yourselves more resilient. And we really need to think about the behaviors in terms of where we're developing, how we're living, so that as a community, we can make it more resilient.

Speaker 3: But in the meantime, all of this is going to have big implications for the U.S. real estate market and therefore the U.S.

Speaker 19: economy. The insurance mechanism is the first to really price in climate.

Speaker 18: How would I even sell my house if I can't get insurance? Because how's the next person going to, you know, they're not going to want, you know, they can't buy a house if they can't get insurance. Well, I guess unless they're coming in cash.

Speaker 3: But the insurance sector was 2.6 percent of U.S. GDP in 2022. Housing in general accounts for around 15 to 18 percent of the U.S. GDP. As the insurance market starts to price in climate risk, a good portion of the U.S. economy will be impacted.

Speaker 4: So you need insurance to have economic growth. So hopefully we're beginning to see the policymaking community in the state of California understand that some changes need to take place. Insurers need to be able to charge for risks like inflation, for risks like increased climate. With a population and economy the size of California, the insurance industry wants to be there. You know, as much as the customers are frustrated about their costs of insurance, insurers are frustrated that they can't do business there anymore. So what we would argue is if we can get the regulation in a better place that better reflects the risk in that state, insurers will be back in wanting to do

Speaker 19: business there. Communities need accurate data to understand where the risk exists, understand what their most vulnerable, not necessarily populations, but assets are in the community, what the most vulnerable parts of their areas are, where they can efficiently allocate resources to protect and suppress the risk that exists in those areas.

Speaker 4: What the insurance industry would also like to see is more emphasis on physical infrastructure resilience, because if we understand that climate risk is increasing and we're living in places that have increased climate risk, we've got to find ways to live in a more resilient manner. And the government can help incentivize that. The tax system, for example, is a great incentivization tool, but also we've seen of late some investments taking place.

Speaker 3: Insurance companies say they have been trying to adequately price in climate risk for years.

Speaker 19: The insurance companies absolutely have their own underlying models and maps that give them the ability to understand which areas are most at risk versus which areas are less at risk. When we produced our model, we correlated it with the data that comes out of the Fair Plan, that comes out of the Citizen Plan in Florida and Louisiana. And what we ended up finding were really high correlations between our extreme wildfire risk, wind risk and flood risk and the either the non-renewals or the increases in premiums on those plans across those states.

Speaker 3: Insurance experts say rethinking how we account for climate risk is also key to keeping communities safe.

Speaker 4: Risk management does not come into play until it's entirely too late when it comes to individual personal property purchasing. It comes into play when the mortgage provider needs you to go get it. And that's the first time when a consumer even begins to think about where they're living and what risks might be. The cost reflects that risk. That should be, you know, an alarm to tell them that they're living in a risky place and then ask themselves, how could I reduce that risk or do I need to think about living somewhere else?

Speaker 3: Like many Americans, Darlene said when she purchased the house, fire. That wasn't even a thought. That's true. But now she's struggling, even though she feels she did everything

Speaker 18: right. We're doing the right thing. We're doing everything we can. We were tired. You know, we worked hard. We were tired. We got our we take good care of our house. I never laid on my bills. I've paid that for 18 years. I've never, you know, never missed making everything right and paying everything. And you just give me no choice. That's the part that bugged me the most, I think, is give me a list. Give me something to work with. Raise it if you need to. You know, the price reasonably. But don't just give me no choice. That's not right.

Speaker 5: The average rent in the United States across all forms of housing is over $1,950 a month. Prices are falling in the West and South, but still rising in the Midwest

Speaker 8: and Northeast. When we moved here, it was around $4,000. In 2023, it's over $6,700.

Speaker 20: We were going to get a 23 percent increase, which we felt was like an eviction notice. It was an eviction notice.

Speaker 5: Experts say the U.S. needs to build over 4 million new apartment homes by 2035 to keep pace with demand. Otherwise, the pricing power of landlords may grow.

Speaker 7: There's not enough housing in the U.S. So guys like us that own 80,000 well-located apartments, we're still in a pretty

Speaker 5: good spot. A group of large landlords is now being sued for their approach to business. The lawsuits focus on their agreements with RealPage, a major provider of property management software.

Speaker 6: Effectively, RealPage is facilitating a housing cartel.

Speaker 5: If that's true, will landlords owe their tenants money? And what will that mean for the future of home rental prices in the United States? The lawsuit brought by the D.C. Attorney General covers over 50,000 apartment units in the district, which were allegedly charged inflated rents for years.

Speaker 6: In the District of Columbia, we're confronting, like many communities, an affordability challenge in housing. Our housing supply doesn't keep up with the demand. So as a result, we have ever increasing pressure on pricing and rents are already high. But what's of significance for the District of Columbia is the concentration of multifamily units, particularly in large apartment buildings with more than 50 units in them.

Speaker 5: For example, see the portfolio of Bazzuto. The company and its affiliates allegedly use RealPage recommendations to set prices on over 15,000 housing units in the district, according to this complaint. Landlords like JBG Associates, Avalon Bay, MidAmerica Apartment Communities and Equity Residential were also named in the complaint, which was filed in November 2023.

Speaker 6: If you talk about the large apartment buildings in our city, the market concentration is north of 50, 60 percent. And then if you add in that type of market with the total DMV, you have close to an 80 or 90 percent concentration of units in these named defendants. They are not only providing housing in the District of Columbia. These are national players.

Speaker 5: For example, Graystar managed over 700,000 units in 2023. Three of the 14 named defendant landlords filed motions to dismiss the case in January 2024, according to D.C. Superior Court records. An initial conference for the case is scheduled for May 2024. The defendant landlords declined to comment on pending RealPage litigation. This lawsuit and others focus on the software that's provided by Richardson, Texas-based RealPage. RealPage products are used to set prices on roughly 4.5 million housing units in the United States. That includes the units in this complex, some of which had rents starting at just under $3,000 a month in January 2024.

Speaker 8: We've been told as tenants by employees of equity that the software takes empathy out of the equation so they can charge whatever the software tells

Speaker 5: them to charge. Property managers started to price apartments with RealPage products in the mid-2000s.

Speaker 21: It's pretty much unequivocal, just turning the system on and letting it perform will outperform your manual analyst. There's almost no way it can't.

Speaker 5: Jeffrey Roper is the inventor of YieldStar. The product was acquired by RealPage in 2002. Its model was combined with another software, Lease Rent Options, and reintroduced in a new AI tool dubbed AIRM for short.

Speaker 21: So you're going to find large REITs and portfolios out there. Absolutely. It's everywhere. You know, I can tell you from the design of YieldStar, it is not directly looking at what the guy across the street is doing in order to determine my rents. He has pieces falling into vacancy points in time that I do not

Speaker 5: have. The company says its software can increase a landlord's revenues by 2 to 7 percent. RealPage told CNBC that it charges landlords a fixed fee for each unit that it helps manage, regardless of its rent price. What happens with the proceeds is up to private equity giant Toma Bravo, which acquired RealPage for $10.2 billion in 2021. In court filings, Toma Bravo claimed that it's not liable for the acts of its subsidiary. The attorney general in D.C. says local landlords complied with RealPage's recommended prices over 90 percent of the time.

Speaker 6: Our complaint alleges that the terms of agreement that the landlords and property owners agree to compel those landlords to charge the rents that the algorithm that RealPage creates spits out. So rather than making independent decisions on what the market here in D.C. calls for in terms of filling vacant units, landlords are compelled under the terms of their agreement with RealPage to charge what RealPage tells

Speaker 5: them. RealPage told CNBC that its landlord customers are under no obligation to take their price suggestions. It also says that the algorithm may suggest downward price revisions depending on the context. That could depend on how much housing gets built, according to expert testimony in Congress.

Speaker 22: The problem is that as prices have gone up since 2011, we have not seen an entry of new developers that compete with those that are incumbent.

Speaker 5: New construction in key housing markets like Orange County, San Francisco and New York is low, according to forecasts shared by companies like Equity Residential.

Speaker 7: We're 96 percent occupied. We raised the dividend 6 percent a few months ago. So the story is housing is expensive and under supplied.

Speaker 8: That could give landlords more power to increase rents. This dynamic of one tenant to a massive landlord, when it's one on one, you really have almost no hope. They can basically crush you.

Speaker 5: Equity's investor materials say the company started to implement apartment pricing software between 2005 and 2008.

Speaker 20: They were using some kind of system that every day you would check and see what the rents were. The entire process had always been stressful. But over the last couple of years, especially after COVID, it just got so

Speaker 5: much worse. Rita Botello says she moved into Portside Towers beginning in 2004. She moved out after a 2022 rent hike, which left her living with

Speaker 20: relatives. Even in the area that we're in right now, my stepkid's apartment, the rents here are also going up. They're also now fearful.

Speaker 8: It affects people whether they have rent control or not. Right. It's manipulating what the market rate is.

Speaker 5: Tenants across the United States have launched numerous lawsuits against their landlords for using RealPage. At least 34 landlords were involved in litigation. In 2023, the Justice Department filed a statement of interest in the class action, arguing that the complaints adequately allege violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The Honorable Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Tennessee will preside over the case. He set a February deadline for a response from the defendants. The lawsuits ask if the conduct of RealPage and the defendant landlords violate antitrust laws or otherwise meet a legal definition of collusion.

Speaker 6: The lawsuit we brought is under our D.C. antitrust statute. Our lawsuit is aiming to do three things. First and foremost, it's to put an end to this practice. We're also seeking a monitor to come in and put fresh eyes on these landlords and the RealPage practices. And then finally, we're seeking monetary damages, penalties, but also restitution for tenants who have been unfairly and illegally required to pay inflated rents higher than what a naturally competitive market would have set for them.

Speaker 21: These systems are carefully designed to avoid collusion, to avoid conflict with fair housing and any other regulatory environment. As we analyze the markets, we find the opportunity for pricing dominance to be really questionable. There's just not as much concentration as we like to see in the markets.

Speaker 5: Roper, the inventor of Yieldstar, now develops revenue management software for the e-commerce industry. Similar products are also used in hotels, grocery stores and to set prices on toll roads. Back in Jersey City, tenants at Portside Towers believe their building is subject to rent control. The local housing authority agreed, ordering restitution that's potentially worth millions of dollars. Equity Residential told CNBC it's filed a lawsuit in federal courts challenging that decision, which was separate from the RealPage

Speaker 8: complaints. But for the city's non-enforcement, we wouldn't be subject to RealPage software or even market rate. There is no market rate under rent control.

Speaker 20: We not only lost our home, but we lost our community.

Speaker 5: We lost everything. The attorney general in D.C. hopes his case will preserve housing affordability in the district.

Speaker 6: It's not only illegal and unlawful in this day and age. It's just immoral and wrong. And that's why we felt it necessary to bring this antitrust lawsuit when we did.