Issaquah tenant Mary Marks, whose rent had shot up 23% in the previous year and a half, suspected the algorithm could be behind her rent increase. Her property management company, Avenue5, was named along with the software maker RealPage in one of the lawsuits filed in Seattle. Late last year, Marks wondered if she could join a lawsuit.
Then, she discovered something she had never noticed in her lease.
A one-page addendum buried in the agreement said she had waived her right to bring or join “any purported class-action lawsuit” against her landlord or the landlord’s “agents.” She could only sue individually.