NC AG investigating real estate software company possibly connected to rent rising

CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – State officials are taking a closer look at some of the factors that make rent affordable in North Carolina.

The state’s top attorney is investigating real estate website, RealPage.com.

The website is a commonly used resource for landlords assessing how much they should charge renters to live in a particular property. Attorney General Josh Stein suspects the website could be using data illegally to generate rent prices.

RealPage Investigation

In a news conference on Monday at the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, AG Stein announced an investigation into the website.

RealPage sells data products that help property managers use statistical models about rent and real estate contracts in the area to generate a rent amount to charge prospective tenants.

This investigation is looking into whether RealPage uses non-public and sensitive competitive data as a part of its modeling, which would violate anti-trust laws.

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AG Stein said property managers can use that private information to raise rents in a specific area and leave units empty to keep rent high, which makes the affordable housing crisis worse.

“We are concerned about is the possibility that when RealPage sends the suggested rental price to the property owner it contracts with, what they’re essentially doing for them is setting the price and saying we have the data of all of your competitors and we know what they’re charging. And so, we think you should charge this. And by the way, we’re going to tell your competitors what we think they should charge. That is not how competition is supposed to work,” AG Stein said on Monday.

This isn’t the first time a state entity has investigated RealPage. Some of those investigations have led to lawsuits, which have led to settlements.

Canary General Contracting Lawsuit

AG Stein is also suing Canary General Contracting and Design, and its operator Steven Sand and owner Khuneary Kim, for running an unlicensed general contracting business and defrauding homeowners in Charlotte.

“We allege that Canary took people’s money and then left major home renovation projects unfinished or finished them so poorly they had to be redone,” AG Stein said. “People invest a lot of time and money in their home, and I’ll hold accountable companies that deceive them.”

Canary allegedly didn’t start projects on time, didn’t complete the work, and often failed to secure building permits on behalf of the homeowners for the planned construction.

Canary also allegedly collected advance payments for work it didn’t complete and left behind substandard work that was unsafe and did not meet code.

In most instances, homeowners had to give up on the project entirely or hire a new contractor to tear down Canary’s poor work and redo the project, AG Stein explained.

The Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Division has received 15 complaints against Canary, and North Carolinians have reported more than $250,000 in financial losses.

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