The biggest single-family rental company in the nation, Invitation Homes, is facing a new lawsuit in California claiming tenants have been charged "excessive and illegal late fees."
The lawsuit alleges that Invitation Homes charges tenants a $95 late fee even if the rent payment is only an hour late, and claims that such practices are illegal in all 12 states where the company operates, writes Patrick Sisson and Jeff Andrews of Curbed. The plaintiffs claim that Invitation Homes "stacks additional late fees of $95 or more on any accrued balance of late fees, even if the tenant paid their most recent rent on time." The suit adds, “The residential rental industry has recently undergone a massive transformation into the large arms of private equity, hedge fund, and other Wall Street giants whose allegiances run solely to their investors, and whose motivations are driven purely by stock price and by showing and growing those all-important quarterly earnings." Invitation Homes' spokesperson declined to comment on the suit when contacted by Curbed.
With 82,570 single-family units across the country, Invitation Homes is the largest single-family rental company. The rise of corporate single-family landlords came after the 2008 financial crisis, as private equity firms and institutional investors bought single-family homes in bulk out of foreclosure in the years following the housing bust. These single-family rental home companies have amassed north of 200,000 homes, but they remain a small slice of the 14 million single-family rental units in the United State. The bulk of single-family rental owners remain “mom and pop” operations.