- United States District Court, District of Massachusetts
- Civil Action No. 23-CV-12901-AK
- Cordeiro et al. v. Greystar et al.
Plaintiffs Shaun Cordeiro and Kevin Matlack brought suit for unlawful and unfair eviction legal fees assessed against Defendant GREP Atlantic, LLC (Greystar).
Plaintiffs are former tenants of The Eddy, an apartment building in East Boston managed by Greystar. Plaintiffs alleged that Greystar’s practice of posting eviction legal fees to tenants’ ledgers and collecting those fees before any court awarded them violates Massachusetts law.
Class Certification Granted
Plaintiffs sought certification of a class of Massachusetts tenants of Greystar-managed properties who were charged and paid such fees. Class certification was granted, and the court appointed Bryson Harris Suciu DeMay, Maginnis Howard, the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, and Greater Boston Legal Services as Class Counsel.
Case Background
Greystar manages over 2,947 communities and 822,100 apartment units worldwide, including The Eddy, an apartment building in Massachusetts where the Plaintiffs were former residents. In Greystar’s standard lease, tenants are required to pay eviction legal fees. However, Plaintiffs allege the lease fails to comply with Massachusetts law which prohibits the assessment of fees absent a judgment or court order, and that tenants will be assessed these fees even if the eviction is voluntarily dismissed.
Plaintiffs allege that Greystar’s general practice is to add the eviction legal fees to the tenant’s ledger when a case is referred to Greystar’s counsel for eviction proceedings and to accept only payment of the full balance including fees.
As such, Plaintiffs and the putative class have been harmed by Defendants’ unfair and deceptive assessment of and attempts to collect eviction legal fees.
In discovery, Greystar produced data showing more than 2,000 Massachusetts residents at more than 70 properties were charged and paid eviction legal fees.
Following class certification, the legality of Greystar’s business practice, with respect to the assessment and collection of eviction legal fees, is currently before the court on the parties’ pending cross-motions for summary judgment.
Bryson attorneys: Scott Harris and Michael Dunn.