The Headen v. Conservice settlement was a $2.5 million Maryland class action resolving claims that Conservice, LLC billed tenants for administrative service fees without holding the collection agency license the state requires. The court granted final approval on December 9, 2022, and the claims deadline closed on February 9, 2023. The settlement is no longer accepting claims, and payments have already been distributed to class members who filed on time.
Why the Case Was Filed
Conservice provides third-party utility management and billing for landlords and property managers. In multi-family properties, it handles submetering or allocation of utility costs and sends bills directly to tenants. Those bills typically include the underlying utility charges plus a separate administrative or service fee for Conservice’s billing work.
The plaintiff, Headen, argued that charging tenants that service fee made Conservice a debt collector under Maryland law. When a third-party company sends you a bill and demands payment, the theory goes, it is collecting a debt, and Maryland requires debt collectors to be licensed before doing business in the state.1Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Business Regulation Code 7-301 Conservice allegedly did not hold that license during the class period.
The complaint also invoked the Maryland Consumer Debt Collection Act, which governs how debts can be collected from consumers in the state. The plaintiff’s position was that unlicensed billing violated both statutes at once: Conservice collected debts without a license and, by doing so, engaged in prohibited collection conduct.
Who Was Included in the Class
The court certified a settlement class made up of all individuals who received a bill from Conservice for a residential property in Maryland that included a service fee between December 8, 2017, and September 2, 2022. That roughly five-year window captured tenants who paid the contested administrative charges during the period the lawsuit covered.
The class was limited to Maryland residents because the claims turned on Maryland licensing and consumer protection statutes. Tenants in other states where Conservice operated were not part of this case, even if they paid similar fees on their utility bills.
How the $2.5 Million Was Divided
Conservice agreed to establish a non-reversionary common fund of $2,500,000. That gross amount covered everything: payments to class members, attorneys’ fees, litigation expenses, the named plaintiff’s service award, and settlement administration costs. Non-reversionary means Conservice does not get back any leftover money.
Class counsel sought attorneys’ fees of approximately one-third of the gross fund, which is standard in common-fund class action settlements. Administration costs, including mailing notices and processing claim forms, also came out of the fund before any money reached class members.
Whatever remained after those court-approved deductions was the net fund, and it was split equally among approved claimants. Every valid claim received the same amount, no matter how many months the tenant had paid service fees or how large those fees were. The per-person figure depended on how many people filed claims, and given the size of the gross fund and the standard deductions, individual payments were modest.
Why You Can No Longer File a Claim
This was a claims-made settlement. Eligible tenants had to submit a valid claim form to the settlement administrator by February 9, 2023, to receive a payment. Anyone who was in the class but did not file a claim received nothing, even though the settlement resolved their claims against Conservice for the fees at issue.
Claimants who submitted on time received their money by check or digital payment after final approval. Verification was done against Conservice’s own billing records to confirm each claimant actually received a bill with a service fee during the class window.
With final approval entered on December 9, 2022, and the claims deadline long past, there is no mechanism to file a late claim or otherwise join the settlement now. Class members who did not opt out also released their claims against Conservice for this conduct during the class period, which means those individuals cannot file their own lawsuits over the same billing practices.
What Maryland Tenants Can Still Do
If you are a Maryland tenant currently receiving bills from a third-party utility company that include administrative or service fees, the licensing rule the Headen case relied on is still on the books. Maryland requires collection agencies to hold a license before doing business in the state, with narrow exceptions for a creditor’s own employees acting under the creditor’s direction.1Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Business Regulation Code 7-301
Tenants who believe a billing company is operating without proper licensing can file a complaint with the Maryland Commissioner of Financial Regulation. The Headen settlement itself is closed, but the underlying legal theory that produced it, that unlicensed third-party utility billing can violate Maryland consumer protection law, has not gone away.