Greystar manages over 2,700 apartment units in Central Massachusetts, including 621 in Worcester.
8 hours ago
Firm managing 2,700+ Central Mass. apartments facing second federal lawsuit over rents
Photo | Matt Wright
The Alta on the Row multi-family development off Mulberry Street in Worcester under construction prior to its opening in 2024.
Greystar, a real estate firm that manages more than 2,700 apartment units and owns three residential complexes in Central Massachusetts, is facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission alleging hidden mandatory fees have caused renters hundreds of millions of dollars since 2019.
The lawsuit, filed by the FTC and the State of Colorado on Thursday, claims the North Carolina-based firm deceived customers regarding their monthly rent costs by tacking on numerous hidden fees on top of advertised prices, a move the government claim violates federal law and FTC regulations.
The FTC claims these hidden mandatory fees ranged from tens to hundreds of dollars a month, saying Greystar sometimes waited to reveal fees until after customers had paid a substantial application fee. Other times, the company would hold a deposit and charge substantial cancellation fees if renters attempt to terminate a lease due to undisclosed costs, according to the FTC.
“Simply put, consumers cannot lease a Greystar-managed apartment by paying only the advertised price,” the complaint reads.
Greystar pushed back against the latest federal lawsuit in a statement released on its website Thursday, claiming to be an industry leader in improved fee disclosure and blaming the FTC for a lack of guidance on the issue.
“Rather than working with Greystar to help drive meaningful improvements for consumers in the rental housing industry, the FTC has opted for headline-grabbing litigation in the waning days of the current administration,” reads the statement, which was posted before President Donald Trump was sworn into office. “The complaint is based on gross misrepresentations of the facts and fundamentally flawed legal theories. We will vigorously defend ourselves against this lawsuit.”
Greystar manages 2,716 apartment units in Central Massachusetts, including the 370-unit Alta on the Row in Worcester and the 258-unit Bancroft Lofts in Framingham, according to CoStar and Greystar’s website.
The firm owns three apartment properties in the region: The 164-unit Avenu at Natick, the 164-unit Avana Marlborough, and The Retreat at Marlborough, a 274-unit complex. Greystar claims to be the largest operator of apartments in the United States.
The latest federal lawsuit Greystar is the second the firm has been named in January, as the firm was added as a defendant in a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit on Jan. 9.
Greystar was one of several with a Central Massachusetts presence named in the DOJ lawsuit, which claimed the firms were coordinating to set rental prices via the use of common pricing algorithms and the sharing of competitively sensitive information.
With the FTC lawsuit filed on Thursday prior to the Monday inauguration of President Trump, the commission was led at the time by the Biden-appointed Lina Khan. Andrew Ferguson, the former solicitor general of Virginia, has since taken over as chairperson of the commission.
Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.
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