• 0 Posts
  • 12 Comments
Joined 5 months ago
Cake day: March 10th, 2025
  • Gates9@sh.itjust.workstoNews@lemmy.world•Blackstone exec among those killed in Manhattan shootingEnglish
    34·
    2 days ago

    Last week, the Department of Justice announced it had filed an amended complaint to its antitrust lawsuit against RealPage in order to sue six of the largest U.S. landlords for their alleged participation in a nationwide rental price-fixing scheme. According to the complaint, the six landlords allegedly coordinated their rents with each other through use of RealPage’s pricing algorithms and direct communication with competitors about rents and occupancy, among other tactics. Of those six landlords, three are owned by private equity firms: Blackstone, Greystar Real Estate Partners, and Cortland Management.

    Blackstone, the nation’s largest landlord, with around 350,000 rental units, has faced years of scrutiny from advocates for its poor treatment of tenants. In August, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) published a report examining how Blackstone has profited from rent hikes and ramped up evictions in California. In 2021, Blackstone acquired 5,800 rental units in the San Diego area. Since then, the report showed, Blackstone has increased the rent at these properties 38% — almost double the 20% average rent increase for all apartments in the San Diego market during this period. The rent increase at some Blackstone-owned buildings was especially high – up to 79%. The report also noted how Blackstone touted to investors multiple times how the firm’s real estate investments benefit from declining new supply of housing, a key driver of the affordable housing crisis.

    “As more and more Americans struggle with the cost of putting a roof over their heads, corporate landlords were allegedly colluding to raise rents ever higher,” said Jordan Ash, Director of Housing at PESP. “Everyday Americans can’t keep up with the cost of rent. Homelessness is skyrocketing. Folks are choosing between medicine and a place to live. We applaud the Department of Justice for taking decisive action to hold profiteers like Blackstone accountable.”

    https://pestakeholder.org/news/pesp-statement-on-department-of-justice-action-against-private-equity-landlord-blackstone-for-alleged-rental-price-fixing-scheme/

  • Gates9@sh.itjust.workstoNews@lemmy.world•‘Longtime’ Hertz customer says he’s ‘done’ after AI scanner flagged water reflection as actual damage: ‘Unchallengable, automated accusation’English
    45·
    3 days ago

    All the car rental companies suck but Hertz is undoubtedly the worst. They have refused to extend my rental twice, when I refused to exchange cars they were like “it’s okay, we know where you are, we can just come and get it”. They frequently have errors checking the car in after return, creating a customer service nightmare to get a receipt. The last time I returned a car I demanded a paper receipt in order to avoid this, they told me to go to the service desk. After waiting in line with all the people waiting to receive their rentals, the customer service rep told me that they “couldn’t find the car” that I literally just returned. After 30 minutes of waiting they still hadn’t figured it out so I just left. Got the receipt the next day, but I have never used Hertz again. Fuck them right to hell.