San Diego voted on Tuesday to ban the software that says it is to be illegally increasing residential income.
The City Council went to the software used by the Texas Realpage company, which has been in federal sights since August when the Biden administration filed an antitrust demand against it. The Department of Justice said that the software algorithm allows owners to see confidential information among competitors to align prices, avoid competition and keep rental.
Related: RealPage demands Berkeley on its prohibition of algorithmic rental pricing software
San Diego, in a vote of 8 to 1, joins other cities that have banned software, including Berkeley, San Francisco and Minneapolis. Realpage has sued Berkeley, fighting federal lawsuit and has not ruled out to demand other cities that have prohibited their software.
“This software assembles private data, from which they should be the owners of the competition, to discover how high they drive prices,” said the councilor is Elo-Rivera at a press conference before the vote.
RealPage’s lawyer, Michael Semko, told the Council that simply offers rental market analysis with a price suggestion, and less than 40% of the time make their clients go with suggestion.
“We do not establish interest rates,” he said. “The only way to lower rentals is to build more homes. I think the ordinance is too wide, it is vague and invites scrutiny.”
RealPage takes the data of millions of apartments, hundreds of owners, to give advice to a user about what to charge a tenant. The owners can still see signs outside other apartment buildings or go to the websites of other complexes to see competing offers and discover what to collect. The legal argument against real realization is that what should be confidential information of real estate management companies should be, as exactly what an owner is charging, instead of just seeing the rents of applicants on websites, and encourages Coluda.
Realpage denies collusion accusations. He says that his software may recommend keeping the lowest or flat income. It also says that so the registered software is violating the rights of freedom of expression of the company to sacrifice the advice on rents.
Lucinda Lilley, a apartments specialist who consults for several property management companies in San Diego County, told The Union Tribune earlier this week that week. She doesn’t use RealPage but Concerned about the ordinance because it limits the collection of data that companies need. She said it seemed that the city did not want property administrators to even carry out market surveys to discover what rental rents in the area.
“What is consecutive is how far they want to go,” Lilley said.
Elo-Rivera said that the ordinance is only aimed at non-public competition data, not in public housing data sites, such as Redfin and Zillow, or market surveys or rental prices. He said he worked closely with the city’s lawyer to prepare an ordinance not as broad as Berkeley’s law, which delineate differentiation, or non -public, data and public sources. The San Diego ordinance contains a size for the owners to use systems software such as RealPage after the data has 90 days (non -public, not conductors).
He argued that the threat of a lawsuit was not a sufficient reason to retreat.
“We cannot control White or not friends,” said Elo-Rivera. “What I do know is that I am not going to intimidate for great corporate executives and their threats to sue ourselves to try to try and not protect consumers.”
The San Diego ordinance says that if a tenant discovers that his lessor is using rental algorithm software, you can seek damage of up to $ 1,000. Lilley said that was a group for property administrators because the law is attacking them to buy software, instead of chasing Realpage directly.
The ordinance does not specifically mention the real page, only the “algorithmic devices” used for rent rates, but the personnel report cites the real page several times as a justification for the action.
The San Diego City Council voted 4-1 in October so that the city staff framed an ordinance aimed at rental software. Only the member of the Board Raúl Campillo voted against the concern that it would be in the way of legal actions throughout the country or throughout the state against the royal page. On Tuesday, again the lonely vote issued, this time due to the group about a specific language that wanted to add about a subsection of the ordinance.
The law occurs when the rental of the San Diego County has been largely flat for more than a year. The real estate tracker said that the average rent in the county, in all types of rooms, was $ 2,513 per month, an annual increase of 0.6%, in mid -April. However, the rental of the county has increased significantly since the start of the pandemic when the average rent was $ 2,005 per month, representing a 25% gain in five years.
The council meeting attended about 50 people, almost all in favor of prohibiting software. They hero sign that they said “stop fixing prices” and “housing for all.”
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Alana Martinson, who works with the organization of older people in service, spoke at the San Diego City Council on Tuesday. I was in favor of the prohibition of rental algorithm software. (Phillip Molnar/The San Diego Union Tribune)
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Alana Martinson, who works with the organization of older people in service, spoke at the San Diego City Council on Tuesday. I was in favor of the prohibition of rental algorithm software. (Phillip Molnar/The San Diego Union Tribune)
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Alana Martinson, with the elderly in service, said that low -income San Dieganos to their organization are dedicating much of their fixed income to rent.
“Older adults in fixed income are especially vulnerable to rental rentals,” he said. “An increase of $ 100, based on an algorithm, not in real market conditions, can be catastrophic.”
The recent graduate of UC San Diego, Nicole Lillie, who now works with the nonprofit organization led by youth, our time to act, said that many of her graduate companions have left San Diego Becoaus cannot afford to live here.
“Our society and their systems have put profits about people,” he said. “Glotones and owners are one million to squeeze up to the last penny of the rolers. One of their most recent tactics has been to use algorithms to inflate artificial our rentals.”
Realpage faces additional demands by the general lawyers of North Carolina and California. As the San Diego City Council was a meeting, North Carolina Attorney announced an agreement with an owner, Cortland, who host RealPage. The company agreed no longer to use the software. North Carolina’s demand against Realpage, and five other owners, is ongoing.
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