Screening Fees, Eviction Fees, Late Fees: Four Cases in the Greystar Record

Two ended in multimillion-dollar class settlements with no admission of wrongdoing. Two have not been resolved in our record.

A heavy open ledger on a courtroom table beside a wooden gavel and a bundle of blank checks tied with string, a small red wax seal on the ledger, in sepia ink-wash style. — Illustration generated with ElevenLabs. It depicts no real people, properties or documents.

The big fee cases, like the FTC and Colorado settlement, cover how rent is advertised. A quieter set of cases covers charges that attach to a specific moment: applying, paying late, or being evicted. Four of them are in our record.

Applying: Daley v. Greystar (Washington)

A class of rental applicants alleged that Greystar charged tenant-screening fees without the advance disclosures Washington law requires. The applications ran from June 2016 to August 2020. Greystar denied wrongdoing and agreed to a $2.5 million settlement, which the court finalized on February 1, 2022.

Being evicted: Wallace v. Greystar (North Carolina)

Tenants alleged that Greystar unlawfully charged North Carolina residents filing fees, sheriff service fees and attorneys' fees in eviction actions, and threatened such fees in collection letters, between 2014 and 2018. The claims were under state rental and debt-collection law. Greystar agreed to a $4,665,000 class settlement without admitting wrongdoing, with a final fairness hearing on July 22, 2022.

Being evicted, again: Cordeiro v. GREP Atlantic (Massachusetts)

Tenants of The Eddy in East Boston sued a Greystar affiliate and the building owner, alleging that "eviction/legal recovery" fees were charged without a court judgment, in violation of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act. The Boston Globe reported that the court dismissed one claim but allowed two to proceed and allowed some of Greystar's counterclaims. The case is pending.

Paying late: Zeff v. Greystar (California)

A 2020 class complaint in the Northern District of California alleges that Greystar charged $100 late fees untethered to actual damages, applied rent payments to prior penalties first so that late fees "stacked" month to month, and charged unauthorized $3.95 utility-administration fees. It also alleges mishandled security-deposit deductions and return timelines under California law. We have not confirmed an outcome.

What the four have in common

Each case is about a charge triggered by an event in a tenancy. Each one also turns on a technical question about what the state's law allows a landlord to charge, and in each the tenants brought the claim as a class.

Where the cases ended in settlement, the pattern is the same: the dollar amounts are significant, but Greystar denied wrongdoing or admitted none. A class settlement is a negotiated resolution reviewed by a court at a fairness hearing. It is not a verdict.

For a longer look at charges at the end of a lease, see Leaving Costs Extra.

Read the record

Each item below is on The Greystar Review with a link to its original source.

This article summarizes public records and published reporting collected by The Greystar Review. Allegations are described as allegations, and a settlement is not a finding of wrongdoing unless a court or agency says so. If something here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.