Atlanta-based apartment company among 6 landlords sued by Justice Department

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Atlanta-based Cortland Management is among six landlords facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice — but the department has offered a way out of the proceedings.

On Tuesday, the department announced it had expanded its existing lawsuit against RealPage, a property management software, to include several real estate companies that used it. The companies are accused of colluding with each other through and outside of the software, sharing pricing information to fix rent.

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“While Americans across the country struggled to afford housing, the landlords named in today’s lawsuit shared sensitive information about rental prices and used algorithms to coordinate to keep the price of rent high,” Doha Mekki, acting assistant attorney general of the Antitrust Divison, said. “Today’s action against RealPage and six major landlords seeks to end their practice of putting profits over people and make housing more affordable for millions of people across the country.”

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The suit comes after the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Cortland’s headquarters in Buckhead last May.

The Justice Department offered a consent decree that would resolve the claims against Cortland. The decree requires the company to cooperate with the investigation and stop using competitors’ data to set prices. Any third-party rent pricing software would need to be approved by a court-appointed monitor.

In a statement, Cortland said it has agreed to the terms, which now need to be approved by the court.

“We believe we were only able to achieve this result because Cortland has invested years and significant internal resources into developing a proprietary revenue management software tool that does not rely on data from external, non-public sources,” the company said. “... We look forward to putting the federal government’s investigations behind us in 2025, as we continue to seek opportunities to invest in tools and services that will improve resident experience and the success of our managed communities.”

The other landlords named in the lawsuit are Greystar Real Estate Partners, LivCor, Camden Property Trust, Willow Bridge Property Company and Pinnacle Property Management Services. The six companies manage more than 1.3 million units in 43 states and Washington, D.C., according to the Justice Department.

Cortland itself is responsible for more than 80,000 units in 13 states, including about 21,000 in metro Atlanta.