State College property management company to close, pay $17K in restitution in settlement
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A State College property management company will close its business and pay $17,500 in restitution as part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought forward for the state attorney’s general office.
Legacy Realty and Property Management agreed to not engage in any business in Pennsylvania and pay restitution to consumers who filed complaints regarding the conduct alleged in the lawsuit, according to a press release from the Pennsylvania Attorney’s General Michelle Henry office.
A 2019 lawsuit filed by the state attorney general accused LRPM of deceptive security deposit practices, among other things. A release from the office states LRPM “charged student tenants allegedly unlawful administrative fees attached to security deposits.” The fees were a percentage of all the charges made against the security deposit, including unpaid rent, damages, cleaning, painting and fines, the release states.
“Some of these tenants were students away from home, on their own, for the first time and signing their first leases,” Henry said in the release. “I’m thankful to see a positive resolution come from this case. My office won’t allow Pennsylvania students to be taken advantage of.”
To be considered for restitution, consumers can submit a complaint with the Office of Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection online at www.attorneygeneral.gov/submit-a-complaint. The complaints must be filed within 90 days after the Court of Common Pleas approves the terms of the agreement.
According to the lawsuit, LRPM required tenants to perform cleaning, replace light bulbs and professionally shampoo the carpets to remedy normal wear and tear, which was “effectively passing the defendant’s cost of business onto the tenants” since 2011.
The company charged tenants $250 to replace smoke detectors or batteries for the smoke detectors. The fines were “unnecessarily high in relation to the violation,” the lawsuit said.
In an emailed statement, a lawyer representing LPRM said although they believed Legacy would have won had the matter gone to trial, settling now would cost less.
“Legacy ended the matter now because the cost of resolving it was significantly less than the cost of going to trial. Even though we believe we would’ve won at trial, because Legacy has always followed the law, Legacy had been in the process of closing down prior to the settlement (which the Attorney General knew) so it seemed foolish to spend money on an unnecessary fight,” Matthew Haverstick, of Kleinbard LLC, wrote.
The LRPM website was inaccessible Monday, with a message that the “site is under construction.”
The lawsuit alleged the landlord was in violation of the Landlord Tenant Act and the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law for administrative fees collected as part of the security deposit.
