Two landlords accused of participating in a scheme that artificially drove up apartment rents across the District have agreed to pay $1.4 million and permanently change how they set rental prices, Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced.
The settlements with Avenue5 Residential, LLC and Bell Partners, Inc. is the latest victory in the District’s ongoing antitrust lawsuit against RealPage, a property management software company that D.C. alleges helped coordinate rent increases by collecting confidential information from competing landlords and using that data to generate pricing recommendations.
“Rent in the District is already unaffordable for too many D.C. residents, and with help from RealPage, these landlords illegally pushed rents even higher,” Schwalb said. “Avenue5 and Bell Partners deserve credit for being among the first to come to the table and reform their anticompetitive rent-setting practices.”
Under separate settlement agreements filed in D.C. Superior Court, Avenue5 and Bell Partners will each pay $700,000. The money will be divided among civil penalties, payments to affected residents, and the District’s legal costs.
The District alleged that Avenue5 used RealPage’s revenue management software at three properties in Washington comprising 667 apartment units. Bell Partners used the software at two District properties and, when the lawsuit was filed, owned more than 1,300 units in the city.
According to the Office of the Attorney General, Avenue5, Bell Partners, and 12 other landlords participating in the lawsuit shared sensitive, non-public business information through RealPage’s pricing platform rather than competing independently for tenants. The District contends that RealPage aggregated confidential data from landlords, analyzed local supply and demand conditions, and generated rent recommendations designed to maximize revenue.
The lawsuit alleges the arrangement affected a substantial portion of the city’s rental market. The Attorney General’s Office has said that more than 30% of apartments in District multifamily buildings and about 60% of units in larger apartment buildings with at least 50 units were priced using RealPage software.
As part of the settlements, both companies agreed to stop using revenue-management software that relies on non-public or confidential information obtained from other companies. They also agreed not to encourage other landlords to use such software or promote systems that recommend rents based on competitors’ confidential data.
The agreements further prohibit the companies from sharing non-public information with other landlords or property managers in ways that could facilitate coordinated pricing.
The consent judgments include enforcement provisions designed to ensure compliance.
If the Office of the Attorney General obtains evidence that either company may be violating the agreements, an independent monitor can be appointed at the companies’ expense to review their practices and determine whether additional penalties are warranted.
The settlements follow an earlier agreement reached in June 2025 with W.C. Smith, the first defendant to settle with the District in the RealPage litigation.
“[I] was just talking about this,” one person wrote on social media in response to Schwalb’s announcement of the settlement on X, formerly known as Twitter, “glad someone’s taking action.”
Schwalb’s office said it continues to pursue claims against RealPage and the remaining landlord defendants.
“We will continue working to hold RealPage and all the remaining defendant landlords accountable to ensure that D.C.’s housing market is fair, competitive, and free of illegal collusion,” Schwalb said.
