Mid-America Apartment Communities

Anyone who merely browses maac.com agrees that every dispute goes to a secret arbitration before THREE arbitrators in MAA's hometown of Memphis — no judge, no jury, no class action, no appeal — and there is no opt-out. MAA keeps the right to run to court for injunctive relief over its own intellectual property.

You agree that any dispute arising out of or relating in any way to your use of this Site requires that such claim be resolved exclusively by confidential binding arbitration... The arbitration shall be conducted before three neutral arbitrators in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.A., in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association ("AAA")... BECAUSE THE USE OF THIS SITE REQUIRES THE ARBITRATION OF ANY CLAIMS OR DISPUTES EXISTING BETWEEN THE PARTIES, NEITHER PARTY WILL HAVE THE RIGHT TO PURSUE THAT CLAIM IN COURT OR BEFORE A JUDGE OR JURY OR TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION OR ANY OTHER COLLECTIVE OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING.

MAA Terms of Service, Section 13

MAA's actual apartment lease forces tenants into binding arbitration for essentially everything — including personal-injury and death claims — with only small-claims and eviction cases excluded. There is an opt-out clause, but tenants must actively exercise it; courts have used this exact language to send injured tenants out of court and into arbitration.

24.2 Agreement to Arbitrate Disputes... ALL CLAIMS THAT ARISE BETWEEN YOU AND LANDLORD WILL BE RESOLVED THROUGH BINDING ARBITRATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FAA AND THE RULES... The term "Claim" means and includes any claim, dispute, action, proceeding, cause of action, or controversy of every kind and nature, whether arising in contract, tort (including, but not limited to, personal injury, death or damage to property) or otherwise... UNLESS YOU OPT OUT OF THIS SECTION 24.2 (AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE DISPUTES), NEITHER YOU NOR LANDLORD WILL HAVE THE RIGHT TO LITIGATE A CLAIM IN COURT...

Residential lease quoted verbatim in Florida Second DCA opinion, Mid-America Apartments v. Joshua Tracz, Sept 12, 2025

To apply for an apartment you must hand your nonpublic personal information to two third-party data brokers (SafeRent Solutions LLC and ID Analytics Inc.), whom MAA openly admits it does not control — while simultaneously signing away ALL claims about how they handle or safeguard your data, including claims you don't even know about yet.

You (a) release MAA from any and all claims, demands, and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with (i) the use or safeguarding by any of the Vendors of any personal information submitted by You in connection with Your application, or (ii) the results of any identity verification services performed by any of the Vendors, and (b) waive any protections (whether statutory or otherwise, for example, California Civil Code § 1542) that would otherwise limit the coverage of the foregoing release to include only those claims that You may know or suspect to now exist in Your favor.

Residency Selection Criteria (identity verification section)

MAA openly admits in writing that mandatory monthly fees (community fee, valet trash, package management, utility admin) are marked up above cost — you are paying them a profit margin on top of the service cost, and taxes are then charged on the padded amount.

You acknowledge and agree that the fees for these nonutilityrelated services include not only our cost to provide the service(s) to You but also a markup representing our profit relating to the service for which You are being charged, and that taxes will be assessed on such services as required by law.

Residency Selection Criteria (Additional Fees section)

If you fail to keep $100,000 in renter's liability insurance, MAA charges you $16/month for an insurance policy that covers ONLY MAA — not you — and openly keeps a profit margin inside that fee.

In the event of noncompliance, MAA will purchase an insurance policy to provide liability coverage to MAA in connection with the apartment home; however, such policy provides no coverage to you and is solely for MAA's benefit... The noncompliance fee reflects the premium cost for the policy along with a profit margin to MAA.

Residency Selection Criteria (Insurance Requirement section)

Once MAA shares your data — SSN, bank info, biometric identifiers, criminal history, protected characteristics — with its third-party vendors and marketing partners, it admits it cannot pull it back, even if you ask for deletion. Your personal data is effectively permanent once shared.

We may not be able to delete or change information that you have given us that has already been passed to one of the third parties we mentioned above.

MAA Privacy Policy, Marketing Communication Opt-Out section (updated Feb 25, 2025)