Landlord charges every tenant a flat $500 move-out cleaning fee for years, hits 3 families at once, they group, sue together, and win every cent back plus legal fees: ‘We stood our ground. We filed a collective action, and yesterday we won’ – FAIL Blog

Three families got hit at the same time, someone made a chat, and people started comparing notes. That is the moment the whole operation falls apart, because once you stop seeing it as bad luck or a strict manager and start seeing it as a deliberate pattern, the conversation changes entirely. Suddenly you are not one exhausted person staring down a corporate legal team over a principle. You are forty units with a lawyer who does this for a living.