This settlement covers a 2024 email data incident at Community Realty Management, the apartment management company that told affected people their Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers and medical information may have been exposed. If a notice reached you, you can take a flat payment expected to be about $20 with no proof at all, or claim up to $2,000 in documented losses instead — and either way, two years of credit monitoring comes with it.
Current Status
Claims are open. September 25, 2026 is the deadline for everything — filing a Claim Form, excluding yourself, and objecting all share the same date. The Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Florida authorized the notice program, and the Final Approval Hearing is set for October 26, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern by Zoom. No final approval order has been entered and no payment date has been announced. One detail deserves attention before you rely on the mail: the Notice says a mailed Claim Form must be postmarked by September 25, while the Claim Form itself says claims must be received by that date. Filing online avoids the question entirely.What Changed Recently?
The claim window is open. The case is Barry Alexander v. Community Realty Management, Inc., Case No. 2026-009398-CA-01, in the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Florida, and Simpluris is administering the settlement. Postcards carrying each class member's LoginID and PIN, along with a separate credit monitoring enrollment code, have gone out to the class list.The incident behind the case runs from September 10 to October 22, 2024. According to the Notice, Community Realty Management became aware of suspicious activity in its email tenant on October 22, 2024, brought in third-party cybersecurity specialists, and the investigation revealed that an unauthorized actor potentially accessed a limited number of email accounts across that window. Those accounts may have held names, Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, state identification numbers, financial account information, payment card information, medical information and health insurance information.
Community Realty Management denies that it did anything wrong, and the Notice states plainly that the Court has not decided who is right. Both sides agreed to settle to avoid the costs, risks, disruptions and uncertainties of continuing the case.
Two things about the company come from outside the settlement documents and should be read as reporting rather than established fact. Community Realty Management is a property manager that has been reported to operate roughly 8,000 apartments across several states and to now do business as CRM Residential — worth knowing because the notice you received may carry either name. Reporting on the company's 2025 breach notification also put the number of people notified at roughly 11,787. The settlement documents themselves publish no class size.
Who Qualifies?
The Court defined the Class as all persons identified by the defendant as being among those individuals potentially impacted by the Data Incident, including all who were sent a notice of the Data Incident. That is the whole test — there is no purchase, tenancy or residency requirement layered on top, and no state limitation. If a notice reached you, the records place you in the class.Excluded from the Class are the defendant's directors, officers and agents, along with those of its subsidiaries and affiliated companies; governmental entities; and the judge assigned to the action, that judge's immediate family, and court staff. Anyone who validly excludes themselves is also out.
How Much Can You Get?
Every class member can enroll in the credit monitoring, and separately choose one — not both — of the two cash options.• Credit monitoring. Two years of CyEx Financial Shield Complete, which the Notice describes as including $1,000,000 of identity theft insurance with no deductible and monitoring for fraud or identity theft, unauthorized financial transactions, and personal information associated with high-risk transactions, plus access to a fraud resolution agent. Enrollment runs on the code mailed by postcard, not on the Claim Form.
• Cash Payment A — documented costs. Up to $2,000 for actual, documented, unreimbursed out-of-pocket losses caused by the incident, limited to losses incurred between September 10, 2024 and September 25, 2026. The listed categories are losses from identity theft or fraud; fees for credit reports, credit monitoring, or freezing and unfreezing credit; the cost of replacing IDs; and postage to contact banks by mail. Nothing is paid for emotional distress, personal or bodily injury, or punitive damages, and you cannot be reimbursed for an expense another source already covered — including anything covered by the monitoring product offered in the original breach notification letter.
• Cash Payment B — alternate cash. A one-time pro rata cash payment the Notice expects to be $20.00, with no proof or explanation required.
The number that governs both cash options is the $200,000 Settlement Cap. If the total value of cash benefits claimed exceeds $200,000, every payment is cut pro rata until the total lands at $200,000. That single pool covers the flat payments and the documented-loss claims together, so approved $2,000 claims draw on the same money as the $20 payments. At $20 apiece the cap absorbs about 10,000 claims before any reduction begins — treat that as arithmetic from the published cap, not a prediction of the claims rate.
One structural point works in class members' favor. Class Counsel will ask the Court to approve $180,000 in attorneys' fees and litigation costs, and a Service Award Payment of $3,500 for the class representative, and the Notice states that the defendant pays both. Neither comes out of the $200,000 available for cash benefits. The Court decides those amounts and may award less.
What Proof or Notice ID Is Required?
To file online you need the LoginID and PIN printed at the top of the Notice mailed to you, which makes this settlement Proof Required: Yes even for the no-documentation $20 payment. The paper Claim Form treats the LoginID as optional, listing it as "if known," so mailing a form is the fallback if you cannot locate your credentials — but claims are subject to verification either way, and the contact page on the official settlement website is the route to ask the Settlement Administrator for a replacement.The $2,000 documented-costs tier adds real evidentiary requirements on top. You must submit documented proof such as bank statements or receipts showing what you spent or lost, and a description of each item claimed. Self-prepared notes or papers may be submitted to explain or support other proof, but the Notice is explicit that they are not enough on their own to make a valid claim, and the proof should show the expense was because of the Data Incident. The $20 payment requires none of this.
The credit monitoring runs on a third credential — the enrollment code sent by postcard, separate from both the LoginID and the PIN.
What Is the Deadline?
September 25, 2026 is the deadline to submit a Claim Form, to exclude yourself, and to object. The Notice does not specify a time of day or a timezone for the claim deadline, so no cutoff time is published here.Important: the Notice and the FAQ say a mailed Claim Form must be postmarked no later than September 25, 2026, while the Claim Form itself states that claims must be received by the Claims Administrator no later than that date. Those are not the same requirement, and the gap between them is however long the mail takes. Filing online removes the ambiguity; if you are mailing, send it well ahead of the date rather than on it.
Excluding yourself has its own mechanics. A Request for Exclusion must be signed by you personally and must identify the case, your full name and contact details, and your intent not to participate, using the words "Request for Exclusion" or a clear equivalent. You may only exclude yourself, not anyone else. Objecting is more demanding still: an objection has to be filed with the Clerk of Court by the same September 25 date and copied to the Settlement Administrator, Class Counsel and defense counsel, and it must include a full statement of your reasons, any lawyer you have retained, a list of any objections you or that lawyer filed in the past five years, whether you intend to speak at the hearing, and your own signature.
How Do You Take Action?
File through the official settlement website at CRM Data Settlement.com, using the LoginID and PIN from your Notice. A printable Claim Form is available there as well for anyone who prefers to mail one. The same site hosts the Notice, the Claim Form and the full Settlement Agreement, whose terms control over any summary — including this one.Filers choosing a cash benefit also pick how they want to be paid. The Claim Form offers PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, a virtual prepaid card, or a physical check mailed to the address on the form. Only one Claim Form per person is allowed, online or on paper, and anyone who has already requested exclusion should not file a claim at all.
What Happens Next?
The Final Approval Hearing is scheduled for October 26, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern by Zoom, with access instructions to be posted on the official settlement website. At that hearing the Court decides whether to approve the settlement, rules on Class Counsel's fee request and the service award, and considers any objections. The Notice cautions that the date and time may change without further notice, so the website is the place to confirm it.A hearing being held is not the same as approval being granted. The Notice states that if the Court approves the settlement there may be appeals, that it is not known whether any will be filed or how long they would take to resolve, and that payments are distributed only after final approval and after any appeals are resolved.
Sources and Verification
• Official settlement website — CRM Data Settlement.com• Notice of Proposed Class Action Settlement and Claim Form and Release, Barry Alexander v. Community Realty Management, Inc.
• Frequently Asked Questions page maintained by the Settlement Administrator, Simpluris
• Barry Alexander v. Community Realty Management, Inc., Case No. 2026-009398-CA-01, Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Florida
Questions
Should I take the $20 or claim documented losses?
You have to pick one — the Claim Form warns against checking both boxes. Cash Payment B is the flat pro rata payment, expected to be about $20, and requires no proof or explanation. Cash Payment A reimburses actual, documented, unreimbursed out-of-pocket losses up to $2,000, but only losses incurred between September 10, 2024 and September 25, 2026, and only with receipts, bank statements or similar records. If you have no documented expenses traceable to the incident, Cash Payment B is the only route that pays. The credit monitoring is separate and is available either way.
Why could my payment come in below $20?
There is a Settlement Cap of $200,000 covering both cash options combined. If the total value of cash benefits claimed exceeds $200,000, every payment is reduced pro rata so the total lands at $200,000. Because documented-loss claims of up to $2,000 draw on the same $200,000, a handful of large approved claims reduces what is left for the flat payments. The $20 figure is the administrator's expectation, not a guarantee.
Do the attorneys' fees come out of my payment?
No. Class Counsel will ask the Court to approve $180,000 in attorneys' fees and litigation costs, plus a Service Award Payment of $3,500 for the class representative, and the Notice states that both are paid by the defendant rather than out of the $200,000 cash cap. The Court decides those amounts and may award less.
I lost the postcard with my enrollment code. Can I still get the credit monitoring?
The Notice says enrollment codes for the two years of CyEx Financial Shield Complete were mailed to all class members by postcard, and directs anyone who no longer has a code to contact the Settlement Administrator. The contact page on the official settlement website is the route to do that. The enrollment code is a separate credential from the LoginID and PIN used to file the Claim Form online.
Does this settlement replace the credit monitoring CRM already offered after the breach?
No, it is in addition to it. The Notice does treat the earlier offer as relevant in one specific way: you cannot be reimbursed under Cash Payment A for expenses that were already covered by another source, including compensation provided through the credit monitoring and identity theft protection product offered in the original notification letter.
