When Lisa Almeida began struggling to get enough hours at work in 2019, she began to fall behind on her rent.

The single mom of two, a visiting nurse, was already living in an income-restricted affordable apartment in Somerville that she had won through a competitive lottery five years before. But soon, she began to struggle to pay even the below-market-rate rent, and her landlord, AvalonBay Communities, filed to evict her.

With help from family and friends, Almeida was able to scrounge up the money to catch up on payments, and the eviction case was dismissed. But when the next month’s rent came due, she was surprised to see an additional line item on the bill: $150 for “Legal Costs/Evictions.”

Thus began a cycle where Almeida, trying to pay what she owed, would once again fall behind and receive yet another eviction filing, then be charged for her landlord’s court costs even after paying what she owed.

That cycle was illegal, according to a class action lawsuit she has now filed against the national real estate company on behalf of herself and what her attorneys believe could be hundreds, or even thousands, of tenants like her.

“I was just very scared,” she said. “Every time took from everyday necessities, cutting back on utility bills or food or whatever it was, it just set me back. Even though I was able to pay it, I would reach that same cycle again.”

AvalonBay Communities did not respond to a request for comment for this story, nor has the company filed any response to the lawsuit as of Friday afternoon.

Avalon at Assembly Row was one of the first buildings completed at Assembly Row, a multi-use development that opened in the mid-2010s. Today, the complex includes more than 1,000 apartments, a movie theater, retail and restaurants, all steps away from the Assembly MBTA station.

In 2014, when the Avalon was opening, the property owners held a lottery for the handful of the apartments that were restricted to residents making up to either 40% or 80% of the area median income (AMI). Almeida fell into the 80% AMI category and said she was “very excited” for the opportunity to live in one of the brand-new units on the fourth floor of the shiny, new community.

According to court records, Almeida’s rent at the time for her two-bedroom unit was $1,413 per month plus utilities, as allowed by federal law for income-restricted units. Today, a market-rate unit of that size starts at $4,254, according to the building’s website.

But a few years later, in 2019, her trouble began. Almeida said she tried to talk to the property managers about a way to avoid an eviction case, but “they were not on board” and sent her a notice to quit, the first step in filing an eviction, as soon as she was late.

It was when she was trying to gather funds to pay what she owed — known as “curing” an eviction — that she noticed the extra fees she was being charged by AvalonBay, which provided no invoice or further explanation of what they represented. Any money she sent the landlord went first to the fees, so even if she tried to pay her rent first, she would still be behind.

Things only got worse during the pandemic, when fewer people wanted a nurse coming directly to her home, and her limited hours began to be cut further.

“I was doing my best to pay it,” she said. “I was also reaching out to family and friends and I was just really stressed out about getting evicted. I didn’t know what that process was like.”

Almeida’s lease with AvalonBay contained a clause saying that in the event she defaulted on her rent, she would be required to pay “all costs and fees, including attorney’s fees, litigation and collection costs that [AvalonBay] incur[s] ... to the fullest extent” of the law.

But according to Almeida’s legal team, what AvalonBay charged her went far beyond Massachusetts law.

Under state law, a clause like the one in Almeida’s lease also implies that if the tenant wins a case, filed by either party, against the landlord, the landlord will then owe legal costs to the tenant. Almeida’s legal team argued in their lawsuit that the opposite is also true, and that the landlord must win a case to be able to charge the tenant legal fees.

State law also says either party must specifically petition the court to be awarded legal fees and have a judge approve that request.

According to state data cited in the lawsuit, from 2011 to 2019, only 1,240 of the approximately 250,000 eviction cases filed in Massachusetts Housing Court included a petition for attorney’s fees — less than 1%.

Not only did AvalonBay not win an eviction case against Almeida, as she was always able to pay or get help to pay what she owed, the company never filed a petition for attorney’s fees. But between 2019 and 2021, the company charged Almeida a total of $2,344.40 in eviction-related legal costs, according to court documents.

“In eviction cases, it’s really these large corporate landlords that are engaging in this practice,” said Greater Boston Legal Services Senior Attorney Courtney Libon, who is representing Almeida. “There was never a finding of anything against her. And yet still, she’s paying for this large corporation’s attorney’s fees.”

Also on the legal team are attorneys from the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School, Bryson, Harris, Suciu & Demay PLLC, and Maginnis Howard.

In any eviction case, a tenant has the right to argue defenses and counterclaims against their landlord, which could stop the eviction or even result in the landlord owing money to the tenant if they are successful. But Almeida’s attorneys say AvalonBay’s actions discourage tenants from mounting a defense, which would drag out a case and therefore heighten what the company charges them.

“Tenants must make the choice of asserting their right to defend against their eviction case and face a significant bill for Eviction Fees or not assert their defenses at all,” they wrote in the complaint.

Libon said the goal of the lawsuit, filed in federal court last month, is to change this practice, for both AvalonBay and any other landlords with similar policies.

“Attorney fees need to be very clearly regulated by a court,” she said. “That’s how it’s been for virtually every other court case where attorney fees are at issue. But for some reason, here, these landlords think they can just surpass that whole process and just charge the tenants.”

In early 2022, Almeida applied for and won another affordable housing lottery for an apartment on Broadway in Somerville. She lives there with her daughter, 14, and son, 22.

“I just didn’t feel secure there, although I did love the apartment and the area itself,” she said of her former unit in the Avalon at Assembly Row.

It’s not clear how many other tenants may be in the same position, or have been affected in the past, as most — Almeida included — likely didn’t know the fees were illegal.

AvalonBay owns more than 97,000 apartments in 11 states and Washington, D.C. In Massachusetts, the company has at least 34 properties in 23 cities and towns.

And with most of those tenants signing onto the same form lease that the company used for its agreement with Almeida, her attorneys believe there could be thousands of others who could be included in the class action case.

For her part, Almeida just hopes other tenants don’t have to experience what she did.

“I just really want transparency, and I think they should be held accountable,” she said. “Many single parents like myself may not have had family or resources to reach out to like I did. I just want to put an end to this.”