A VineBrook Homes lawsuit has come from three main directions: the City of Cincinnati, which sued the company twice before settling in June 2024; tenants who filed a class action in Hamilton County, Ohio over a mandatory monthly fee; and a U.S. senator who opened a formal inquiry into the company’s practices. VineBrook, headquartered in Dallas and one of the largest corporate single-family landlords in the country, owned more than 23,000 homes across 20 states at the end of 2024.
Cincinnati’s Two Lawsuits Against VineBrook
The City of Cincinnati filed its first suit in July 2021, alleging VineBrook owed more than $600,000 in unpaid water bills and civil fines tied to health and building code violations across its roughly 950 Cincinnati properties.1WCPO. Cincinnati Sues VineBrook Homes After Repeated Violations, Breach of Settlement Agreement That case settled in September 2021, with VineBrook agreeing to fix problems at its properties and stop certain eviction practices.2City of Cincinnati. City Sues VineBrook
In January 2023, the city sued again. Prosecutors alleged VineBrook had breached the 2021 settlement and that its entire business model amounted to a “public nuisance.” The complaint added claims of civil conspiracy and repeated violations of the Ohio Landlord Tenant Act and the Cincinnati Municipal Code, and asked a Hamilton County judge to appoint a receiver to take control of VineBrook’s properties.1WCPO. Cincinnati Sues VineBrook Homes After Repeated Violations, Breach of Settlement Agreement3WVXU. Cincinnati Sues VineBrook Homes Public Nuisance Business Practices
What the 2023 Complaint Alleged
The city’s 2023 filing described the operating pattern in detail. According to city attorneys, VineBrook intentionally avoided maintenance and flouted building and safety standards to keep renovation costs low, renovated properties without required permits, and spread ownership across at least 62 Ohio LLCs as a way to dodge regulatory oversight.3WVXU. Cincinnati Sues VineBrook Homes Public Nuisance Business Practices
The complaint also singled out specific lease provisions the city considered illegal. Among them: requiring tenants to pay for “small cost repairs,” making tenants responsible for all pest control except termites, charging a $75 fee if VineBrook deemed a service call “unnecessary,” and disclaiming any duty to provide alternative housing if a unit became uninhabitable. The city further alleged that VineBrook routinely demanded a $350 attorney fee from tenants as a condition of accepting emergency rental assistance.3WVXU. Cincinnati Sues VineBrook Homes Public Nuisance Business Practices
Prosecutors also accused the company of discouraging tenants from reporting code violations by threatening eviction and “blacklisting” them from future housing, and of using illegal “self-help” evictions and utility-disconnection threats, both barred under Ohio law.3WVXU. Cincinnati Sues VineBrook Homes Public Nuisance Business Practices
The June 2024 Settlement
The 17-month case ended in a settlement announced on June 11, 2024. VineBrook agreed to modify its leases to clarify which maintenance costs fall on renters and whether it can charge additional rent for specific repairs. The city agreed to simplify its inspection process for demonstrating code compliance. A third-party property manager was to be appointed at VineBrook’s expense to monitor both sides, and the parties agreed to binding arbitration for future disputes along with a mutual non-disparagement clause.4WCPO. City Settles 17 Month Old Lawsuit With VineBrook Homes, Lease Changes Coming for Local Tenants
Neither side admitted fault.5VineBrook Homes. VineBrook Homes and City of Cincinnati Settle Litigation, Establish New Working Relationship VineBrook co-founder Dana Sprong called the agreement one that would let the company continue its “long-standing mission of providing safe, clean and functional homes to our residents at affordable prices.”4WCPO. City Settles 17 Month Old Lawsuit With VineBrook Homes, Lease Changes Coming for Local Tenants
Class Action Over the $10 Monthly Fee
A separate class action was filed against VineBrook on November 18, 2022, in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas. Brought by DeBlasis Law Firm and Brown Law Firm on behalf of tenants, the suit challenges a mandatory, non-refundable monthly “Property Administration Fee” of $10.6Brown Law Firm. VineBrook Class Action
VineBrook described the fee as covering maintenance, repairs, and property damages. The plaintiffs argue that amounts to charging twice: tenants pay the monthly fee and are still held liable for damages through security deposit deductions at move-out. The complaint alleges violations of Ohio Revised Code Chapter 5321, the state’s landlord-tenant statute, along with fraud, unjust enrichment, and conversion.7VB Complaint. Class Action Complaint The case appears to remain pending, with no reported ruling on class certification, settlement, or dismissal.6Brown Law Firm. VineBrook Class Action
Eviction Filings and Tenant Complaints Behind the Suits
The litigation grew out of a broader pattern documented by reporters, legal aid attorneys, and regulators. A WCPO I-Team analysis identified VineBrook as the most prolific eviction filer in Hamilton County, Ohio.4WCPO. City Settles 17 Month Old Lawsuit With VineBrook Homes, Lease Changes Coming for Local Tenants A Legal Aid attorney told reporters the finding was unsurprising because “evictions are a regular part of their business model.”8Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati. VineBrook Homes Ranks First in Hamilton County Eviction Filings
Since entering Missouri in 2019, VineBrook filed more than 800 legal actions against tenants there. St. Louis area tenants said they received eviction notices while their accounts were current, and one tenant said the company filed two evictions against him during the COVID-19 pandemic while he was trying to secure rental assistance. VineBrook later called those filings a “mistake.”9St. Louis Public Radio. VineBrook Homes Owns Thousands of Midwest Properties, St. Louis Tenants Cry Foul
The Better Business Bureau page for VineBrook Homes Ohio listed 280 complaints over three years, the majority classified as service or repair issues. Tenants described flooding and water damage from burst pipes and failing appliances, months-long waits for routine maintenance, homes that were filthy and pest-infested at move-in, and move-out charges for damage they said predated their occupancy.10Better Business Bureau. VineBrook Homes Ohio LLC Complaints In Indianapolis, the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana reported high rates of evictions and code violations, with residents saying they were “treated like animals.”11Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana. FHCCI 2023 News A Midwest Newsroom analysis found that most VineBrook-managed homes in St. Louis, Kansas City, and Omaha sit in census tracts that are predominantly non-white, with median household incomes between $40,000 and $60,000.12St. Louis Public Radio. VineBrook in Debt Is Ditching Midwest Rental Properties and Facing Angry Tenants
Senate Scrutiny of the Company
In December 2022, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, then chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, sent a letter to VineBrook’s interim president demanding answers on rent increases, maintenance response times, eviction data, and the company’s use of dozens of LLCs to hold properties. The letter set a January 2023 deadline for a response.13U.S. Senate Banking Committee. Letter to VineBrook Homes Trust Brown later introduced the Stop Predatory Investing Act, which would strip federal tax breaks from companies that purchase 50 or more single-family rental homes.14Flatwater Free Press. VineBrook in Debt Is Ditching Midwest Rental Properties and Facing Angry Tenants
What Has Changed at the Company Since
On June 10, 2025, VineBrook announced a sweeping restructuring. It outsourced all day-to-day property management to Evergreen Residential Management, LLC under a seven-year agreement covering leasing, maintenance, rent collection, and renovations. The move eliminated VineBrook’s entire 500-person full-time workforce by the end of 2025, at a severance cost of $2.8 million to $3.1 million.15U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. VineBrook Homes Trust 8-K Filing
On the same day, VineBrook terminated co-founder Dana Sprong and executive Ryan McGarry. Sprong was expected to resign from the board, and both executives were to receive severance under their existing agreements.16SQX Alts. VineBrook Shifts to External Property Management Model The company acknowledged in its SEC filing that the restructuring carried risks, including “adverse legal, reputational and financial effects” and “potential operational disruptions.”15U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. VineBrook Homes Trust 8-K Filing By December 2025, Evergreen had taken over management of 20,365 homes, and John Good was serving as president and CEO as of March 2026.17VineBrook Homes Trust. March 2026 Webinar Presentation
The class action and the pending federal proposals aside, the Cincinnati settlement is the only resolved piece of VineBrook’s legal exposure. If you are a current or former VineBrook tenant weighing your options, the settlement changed how leases in Cincinnati read but did not refund past charges, and the fee-based class action in Hamilton County is the vehicle where tenant-side monetary claims are still live.