What is the Collier Companies accelerated rent settlement?

A class action settlement resolving claims that The Collier Companies Inc. and Paradigm Properties Management Team, Inc. illegally charged Florida tenants accelerated rent and accelerated late fees when they broke their lease early. Under Florida law, landlords have specific remedies when a tenant terminates a lease early — and charging the full remaining rent for the entire lease term is not one of them. The case is Raji v. The Collier Companies Inc. and Paradigm Properties Management Team, Inc., Case No. 2021-CA-0002, in the Circuit Court of Leon County, Florida.

Who qualifies for the Collier Companies settlement?

There are two classes. The Actual Damages Class includes former tenants (and their guarantors) who received a demand for accelerated rent or accelerated late fees AND actually paid. Approximately 3,177 tenants were charged accelerated rent and 6,295 were charged accelerated late fees. The Injunctive Relief Class includes former tenants who received such a demand but did NOT pay.

What do Collier Companies settlement class members get?

If you paid accelerated rent or late fees (Actual Damages Class): You get a cash refund of the amounts you actually paid. If you were charged but did not pay (Injunctive Relief Class): You get debt relief — Collier Companies will stop all collection efforts and request removal or modification of any negative credit reporting related to the accelerated charges. Both classes benefit from the company ceasing all collection and requesting credit reporting cleanup.

What is The Collier Companies?

The Collier Companies is one of the largest privately owned apartment companies in Florida and the largest provider of student housing owned by a private individual in the country. Founded in 1972 in Gainesville, the company owns and manages over 12,000 apartment homes across Florida in cities including Gainesville, Tallahassee, Orlando, Ocala, Tampa, Sarasota, Daytona Beach, Port Orange, Palatka, Apopka, Oviedo, and more. Paradigm Properties is the management brand for many of their communities. Well-known property names include Oxford Manor, The Enclave, Gainesville Place, Lux 13, The Polos, College Manor, College Park, Bivens Cove, Boardwalk, The Landings, Spanish Trace, Campus Walk, and many others. If you rented from any Collier or Paradigm apartment and were charged accelerated rent or late fees after breaking your lease, this settlement may apply to you.

When is the final hearing for the Collier Companies settlement?

The Final Settlement Fairness Hearing is scheduled for March 19, 2026 at 10:30 AM at the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit in Leon County, Florida. The settlement has received preliminary approval. The court will decide at this hearing whether to give final approval.

Do I need to file a claim for the Collier Companies settlement?

If you are in the Actual Damages Class (you actually paid accelerated rent or late fees), you need to submit a claim form to receive your refund. If you are in the Injunctive Relief Class (you were charged but did not pay), you do not need to file a claim — the debt relief and credit cleanup happen automatically. Check the settlement notice you received for the specific claim deadline.

Will Collier Companies fix my credit report?

Yes. As part of the settlement, Collier Companies has agreed to request modification or deletion of all credit reporting related to accelerated rent and accelerated late fee charges for members of both classes. This means if these illegal charges damaged your credit score, the company will ask the credit bureaus to remove or correct the information.

What happens if I do nothing in the Collier Companies settlement?

If you do nothing and you are in the Actual Damages Class, you will not receive a cash refund — but you will still benefit from the debt relief and credit cleanup. If you are in the Injunctive Relief Class, the debt relief and credit repair happen automatically even if you do nothing. However, in both cases, you give up your right to sue Collier Companies separately over these charges.

Collier Companies Settlement: Refunds for Tenants Charged Illegal Accelerated Rent and Late Fees

Q: What are accelerated rent and accelerated late fees?

Accelerated rent means the landlord demanded you pay the full remaining rent for the entire duration of your lease all at once after you broke the lease early. Accelerated late fees means they also charged late fees on all that future rent. For example, if you had 8 months left on your lease and broke it, the landlord demanded you pay all 8 months of rent immediately plus late fees on each month — even though you already moved out. Florida law limits what landlords can charge when a tenant breaks a lease, and this type of blanket acceleration is alleged to violate the Florida Residential Landlord and Tenant Act.

By Steve Levine

Collier Companies Paradigm Properties Accelerated Rent Late Fees Class Action Settlement

Published: February 15, 2026

Payout: Cash refunds of accelerated rent/late fees actually paid + debt cancellation + credit repair

Who Qualifies: Former Collier Companies / Paradigm Properties tenants in Florida who were charged accelerated rent or accelerated late fees after breaking their lease

Final Hearing: March 19, 2026

If you ever rented an apartment from Collier Companies or Paradigm Properties in Florida and broke your lease early, you may have been hit with a bill demanding you pay the entire remaining rent on your lease all at once — plus late fees on every single month. A class action settlement says those charges were illegal under Florida law, and you could be owed a refund.

Collier Companies is one of the biggest apartment landlords in Florida. They own and manage over 12,000 apartments across the state under dozens of property names. If you lived in a Collier or Paradigm apartment in Gainesville, Tallahassee, Orlando, Ocala, Tampa, Sarasota, Daytona Beach, Port Orange, Palatka, Apopka, Oviedo, or anywhere else they operate — and you were charged "accelerated rent" or "accelerated late fees" after ending your lease early — this settlement is for you.

About 3,177 former tenants were charged accelerated rent and another 6,295 were charged accelerated late fees. If you paid those charges, you can get a cash refund. If you didn't pay and the debt is still hanging over your head or hurting your credit, the settlement cancels the debt and cleans up your credit report.

What Are Collier Companies and Paradigm Properties?

The Collier Companies is one of the largest privately owned apartment companies in Florida and the largest provider of student housing owned by a private individual in the country. Founded in 1972 in Gainesville by Nathan S. Collier, the company now owns and manages over 12,000 apartment homes. Paradigm Properties is the management brand for many of their communities, particularly near the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Their apartments are spread across Florida in cities including Gainesville, Tallahassee, Orlando, Ocala, Tampa, Sarasota, Daytona Beach, Port Orange, New Smyrna Beach, Palatka, Apopka, Oviedo, Palmetto, and Wesley Chapel. Some of their well-known property names include Oxford Manor, The Enclave, Gainesville Place, Lux 13, The Polos, College Manor, College Park, Bivens Cove, Boardwalk, Cobblestone, The Landings, Madison Pointe, Campus Walk, Spanish Trace, Pinetree Gardens, The Crossing at Santa Fe, Arlington Square, The Laurels, Franklin Pointe, The Landing at Appleyard, The Preserve at San Luis, Polo Club Tallahassee, West 10, Wisteria Downs, The Connection, The Gardens, Barrington, Greenwich Green, Hidden Village, Museum Walk, Aspen Ridge, Frederick Gardens, and Monarch Luxury Apartments, among others.

If you rented from any of these communities — or any other Collier Companies or Paradigm Properties apartment — and were charged accelerated rent or late fees after breaking your lease, you may be part of this class.

What Are Accelerated Rent and Accelerated Late Fees?

These are the charges at the center of this lawsuit, and understanding them is important because a lot of renters who got these bills had no idea the charges might be illegal.

When you break a lease early, the landlord has options under Florida's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (FRLTA). They can take back the unit and try to re-rent it, charging you only the difference while it sits empty. They can charge a reasonable early termination fee (capped at 2 months' rent under Florida law). Or they can hold you responsible for rent month-by-month as it comes due.

What the lawsuit says Collier Companies did instead was demand the full remaining rent for your entire lease all at once. So if you had 8 months left and your rent was $1,200/month, they'd send you a bill for $9,600 — immediately, all at once — regardless of whether they re-rented the unit the next week. Then they piled late fees on top of each of those future months' rent. That's "accelerated rent" and "accelerated late fees."

The lawsuit alleges this practice violates Florida law because it's not one of the remedies the FRLTA authorizes, and any lease provision agreeing to it is void and unenforceable under Florida Statute § 83.47. Collier Companies denies all allegations of wrongdoing. The court has not decided who is right.

Who Qualifies?

There are two settlement classes, and which one you're in depends on whether you actually paid the accelerated charges.

The Actual Damages Class includes former tenants (and their guarantors) on a residential lease at any Collier Companies property who received a demand for accelerated late fees and/or accelerated rent and actually made a payment. Approximately 3,177 tenants were charged accelerated rent and 6,295 were charged accelerated late fees.

The Injunctive Relief Class includes former tenants (and their guarantors) who received a demand for accelerated rent or late fees but did not pay.

What Do You Get?

The benefits depend on which class you're in.

If you paid accelerated rent or late fees (Actual Damages Class), you can receive a cash refund of the amounts you actually paid that were attributable to the period following the damages period, as calculated under the settlement agreement. You need to submit a claim form to receive this refund.

If you were charged but did not pay (Injunctive Relief Class), you will receive debt relief. Collier Companies has agreed to stop all collection efforts on accelerated rent and accelerated late fees and to request removal or modification of any negative credit reporting associated with those charges.

Both classes benefit from credit restoration. Collier Companies has agreed to request modification or deletion of all credit reporting related to accelerated rent and accelerated late fee charges. The court specifically noted that although the settlement technically only required removal of partial balances, the company agreed to request removal of all credit reporting for these charges because partial removal was logistically impractical. This actually benefits class members more than what the settlement originally required.

Both classes also benefit from the company being required to stop imposing these charges on current and future tenants going forward.

Important Dates

• Preliminary Approval: November 12, 2025
• Tenants Affected: ~3,177 charged accelerated rent + ~6,295 charged accelerated late fees
• Objection Deadline: 45 days after notice is mailed (check your settlement notice for exact date)
• Final Approval Hearing: March 19, 2026 at 10:30 AM — Circuit Court, Second Judicial Circuit, Leon County, Florida

Attorneys' Fees

Attorneys' fees and costs for Class Counsel (David Abrams, Robert Churchill of Churchill Law Group, and Dean LeBoeuf of Brooks, LeBoeuf, Foster, Gwartney, & Hobbs P.A.) will be paid separately by the defendants and do not reduce the refund payments to class members. Service awards of $5,000 each are being paid to class representatives Armani Raji and Kimberly Swygert, also paid separately by defendants.

What Happens If I Do Nothing?

It depends on your class. If you are in the Injunctive Relief Class (you were charged but didn't pay), the debt relief and credit cleanup happen automatically — you don't need to do anything to benefit from those. If you are in the Actual Damages Class (you paid), you need to submit a claim form to get your refund. In either case, if you do nothing and don't opt out, you give up your right to sue Collier Companies separately over these charges.

How to File a Claim or Get More Information

If you received a settlement notice, it contains instructions for filing a claim form and the specific deadline. Check your notice for details. The settlement is currently pending final approval, with the fairness hearing scheduled for March 19, 2026.

How Do I Find Class Action Settlements?

Find all the latest class actions you can qualify for by getting notified of new lawsuits as soon as they are open to claims:

Case Information

The case is Raji and Swygert v. The Collier Companies Inc. and Paradigm Properties Management Team, Inc., Case No. 2021-CA-0002, in the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit in and for Leon County, Florida.

Defendants: The Collier Companies Inc. (Gainesville, FL) and Paradigm Properties Management Team, Inc.

Class Representatives: Armani Raji and Kimberly Swygert.

Class Counsel: David H. Abrams (Orlando, FL); Robert G. Churchill of Churchill Law Group, PLLC (Tallahassee/Orlando, FL); Dean LeBoeuf of Brooks, LeBoeuf, Foster, Gwartney, & Hobbs P.A. (Tallahassee, FL).

Defense Counsel: Frank A. Zacherl of Shutts & Bowen (Miami, FL).

Settlement Administrator: American Legal Claim Services, LLC.

Court Order

Sources

• Agreed Order Certifying Actual Damages and Injunctive Relief Classes and Granting Preliminary Approval, Raji and Swygert v. The Collier Companies Inc. and Paradigm Properties Management Team, Inc., Case No. 2021-CA-0002 (Circuit Court, Leon County, FL), filed November 12, 2025

Filing Class Action Settlement Claims

Please submit only truthful information when filing your claim. If you are unsure whether you qualify, contact Class Counsel. OpenClassActions.com is a consumer news site and is not the settlement administrator or a law firm.

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Class Action Summary
Status	Preliminary Approval Granted — Pending Final Approval
Payout	Refunds of accelerated rent/late fees paid + debt cancellation + credit repair
Category	Tenant Rights / Illegal Fees / FRLTA Violation
Defendants	The Collier Companies Inc. & Paradigm Properties Management Team, Inc.
Tenants Affected	~3,177 (accelerated rent) + ~6,295 (accelerated late fees)
Actual Damages Class	Tenants who received demand AND paid — eligible for cash refunds
Injunctive Relief Class	Tenants who received demand but did NOT pay — debt relief + credit repair
Case Number	2021-CA-0002
Court	Circuit Court, 2nd Judicial Circuit, Leon County, FL
Preliminary Approval	November 12, 2025
Final Approval Hearing	March 19, 2026 at 10:30 AM
Service Awards	$5,000 each to Raji and Swygert (paid by defendants)
Attorneys' Fees	Paid separately by defendants — does not reduce class payments
Settlement Admin	American Legal Claim Services, LLC