A property administration firm should pay practically $2 million to the District and tenants of the 3003 Van Ness condo advanced who say the corporate misled them about hire prices and later subjected them to unjust hire will increase, D.C. Legal professional Common Karl A. Racine introduced Wednesday.
Washington, D.C
Management company to pay $2 million for ‘deceptive’ D.C. rent hikes
Racine (D) sued Fairness Residential Administration in 2017, alleging that the corporate for years had leased flats within the rent-controlled advanced that have been initially marketed with an undisclosed low cost. When it was time for the tenants to resume their leases, Racine stated in a press release, Fairness Administration elevated the rents primarily based on the precise hire listed within the lease — moderately than the discounted fee residents had been paying — which at instances triggered tenants’ rents to extend by 1000’s of {dollars} per thirty days.
After a two-week bench trial, a D.C. Superior Courtroom choose decided that Fairness Administration violated the town’s Shopper Safety Procedures Act, the assertion stated. Fairness Administration should now pay about $985,100 to the tenants who have been harmed, on high of about $1 million to cowl the prices of bringing the lawsuit. The corporate didn’t return a cellphone name Wednesday to its D.C. workplace looking for remark.
“At each step within the rental course of, from on-line ads to condo searches, excursions, and purposes, Fairness misled potential tenants, in the end putting them in an unattainable monetary state of affairs,” Racine stated in a press release that known as the corporate’s leasing practices “misleading.” “Residents have been compelled to decide on between paying an unaffordable, unpredictable quantity in hire, or leaving their properties. We are going to proceed to carry accountable landlords that prey on residents’ want to seek out inexpensive housing.”