Renters across the US can now file claims against a $359.9 million settlement fund in a lawsuit alleging that software quietly helped landlords push rents higher than open competition would have allowed. If you paid rent on an apartment between October 18, 2018 and November 21, 2025 — and your building used pricing software made by a company called RealPage — you may be owed a share of that money. Claims are due January 29, 2027, and there is an official website where you can check your building and file in minutes.
The settlements come out of a large class action — a single lawsuit filed on behalf of everyone allegedly harmed the same way, so individual renters don’t have to sue on their own. The case, playing out in federal court in Nashville, accuses RealPage and dozens of major landlords of using shared, nonpublic data to inflate rents nationwide. The settling companies deny all wrongdoing, and no court has ruled on whether the allegations are true.
First, check whether your building is on the list
You qualify if you paid rent on at least one multifamily lease — an apartment in a building with multiple units — directly to the owner or manager of a property licensed to use one of RealPage’s rent-pricing products: Revenue Management Solutions, Lease Rent Options, YieldStar, or AI Revenue Management. The lease must fall between October 18, 2018 and November 21, 2025, anywhere in the US or its territories.
You likely have no idea what software your landlord used, and that’s expected. The official settlement site, run by a court-authorized administrator, has a property lookup tool at realpagerentalsettlement.com/property-lookup. Enter your building and it will tell you whether it’s covered. The list of settling landlords includes some of the country’s biggest names, among them Greystar, Equity Residential, Camden Property Trust, Lincoln Property Co., and Bozzuto.
If your building qualifies, you can file online at realpagerentalsettlement.com/submit-claim, or by mail to the settlement administrator’s P.O. Box in East Brunswick, New Jersey.
What the lawsuit says happened
The complaints — echoed in a separate civil case brought by the US Department of Justice — describe a system that worked like this. Landlords who competed with each other all fed private information into RealPage’s software: the actual rents tenants paid, lease terms, and how many units sat empty. The software combined that nonpublic data and recommended prices back to each landlord.
Normally, competing landlords have to guess what rivals charge and undercut each other to fill units. The lawsuits allege the software let them effectively coordinate instead — with an algorithm doing the work that an illegal handshake agreement once would have. RealPage has consistently denied that its software causes collusion, and the settling landlords deny wrongdoing too.
The DOJ case is separate from this settlement, but it has already changed how RealPage operates: under an agreement with the government, the company must stop using nonpublic competitor data to generate pricing recommendations.
“There will be no payments at this time.” Money goes out only after a judge grants final approval.
The deadlines that matter
- September 1, 2026Deadline to opt out of the settlement (keeps your right to sue) or to formally object to the deal.
- October 15, 2026Fairness hearing — a judge decides whether to approve all 37 settlements.
- January 29, 2027Claims deadline. Miss this and you receive no payment, even if your building qualifies.
One warning: doing nothing has consequences. If you’re covered and never file, you get no payment — but you still give up your right to sue these companies over the same conduct.
How much each renter receives is not yet known. It depends on how many people file and on the plan of allocation, the court-approved formula that divides the fund. Ignore any dollar estimates you see on third-party websites; the official long-form notice is the only reliable source.
What this means for you
If you rented an apartment in a larger building anytime since October 2018, spend five minutes on the property lookup tool — even if you’ve since moved. Gather what you can: old leases, addresses, and dates. File before January 29, 2027, then be patient; nothing pays out until the court gives final approval. Use the official settlement site directly — it is the court-authorized channel, and the only reliable source of information about the process.
The fairness hearing on October 15 is the next moment that matters: a judge will decide whether all 37 settlements go forward as written. Meanwhile, the litigation isn’t over — these deals only partially resolve the case, and claims against landlords who haven’t settled continue. Whatever the outcome, the case has already put a question in front of every renter that few thought to ask before: who — or what — actually set your rent?
