Fire department report suggests deliberate gasoline spill at 3003 Van Ness

A report by DC Fire and EMS, obtained via a FOIA by the Van Ness South Tenants Association, suggests that a gasoline leak at 3003 Van Ness on August 20, 2023, may have been deliberate.

The report states that residents of 3003 Van Ness complained about a strong smell of gas in the West building of 3003 Van Ness, which was confirmed by the DC Fire crew on the scene. Firefighters found that the odor seemed to emanate from a room on the penthouse level marked “West Back Machine Room,” “Cooling Tower Access.”

According to the official report:

“There was also a strong odor of gasoline coming from inside the room. Once the cardboard boxes and plywood were removed from behind the door, Engine 28's crew made entry into the room where a gas can was located along with what appeared to be vandalism to some of the room's contents. “

It appears that an individual may have been arrested in connection with this incident, but retrieval of arrest records is pending.

Members of the Van Ness South Tenants Association are particularly concerned about the gasoline incident because in recent months, residents have been plagued with many fire alarms, as many as 2-3 per week. Management has claimed that these alarms likely were pranks. However, the alarms have sounded so often, day and night, that many residents no longer bother to leave their apartments when the alarms go off. If DC Fire had not arrived on the scene on August 20th and discovered the apparent gasoline spill, the results coul d have been catastrophic.

On August 29th, the tenant association sent a letter to Equity Residential expressing residents strong concerns about these issues.

As of August 31st, Equity Residential has sent no communication to residents of 3003 Van Ness about the gasoline incident.

3003 Van Ness is chosen by the Department of Buildings for a "Proactive Inspection"

The DC Department of Buildings has announced that 3003 Van Ness has been chosen for a “Proactive Inspection,” which according to DOB “is designed to promote safety and ensure all rental units in the District of Columbia meet residential property maintenance and building codes.”

The Department of Buildings website explains that buildings are chosen using a special algorithm “to address apartment buildings with an increased likelihood of violations. The algorithm takes into account factors like a building's age and the landlord's history of code violations.”

Equity Residential, the owner and the manager of 3003 Van Ness, has had a high number of violations and has been assessed many fines in recent years. A Freedom of Information Act request by the Van Ness South Tenants Association retrieved 572 pages of code violations and fines, including photos. (The file is too large to upload.)

Some residents of 3003 Van Ness received an email from Equity Residential on Tuesday, August 29th, advising them that they must fill and submit a form giving or denying consent for an apartment inspection by Friday, September 1st, 2023 — the day before the Labor Day weekend. The Van Ness South Tenants Association has requested an extension in order to get additional information about the inspections and to give residents enough time to read the forms, make a decision about whether they want an inspection, and submit the form to the Equity Residential Leasing Office.

The Van Ness South Tenants Association for years has advocated for better maintenance of 3003 Van Ness and has published a report about possible structural problems in the underground garage.

““... to address apartment buildings with an increased likelihood of violations. The algorithm takes into account factors like a building’s age and the landlord’s history of code violations.””

— DC Department of Buildings

VNSTA sends letter to Equity management regarding gasoline incident and fire safety

The Van Ness South Tenants Association today sent a letter to Josh Luper, Equity Residential property manager for 3003 Van Ness, regarding a recent incident in which an intruder poured gasoline in a stairwell.

The letter begins:

“I am writing to express our deep concern with fire safety conditions at 3003 Van Ness. 

As you know, for months residents have endured very frequent fire alarms, as many as two or three a week, day and night. These have occurred so often that many residents don’t bother to leave their apartments when the fire alarms go off. 

Equity Residential has sometimes claimed that there was a minor problem e.g., with the boilers. At other times Equity has claimed that someone pulled the alarms as a prank – if this is true, it is concerning that the company hasn’t been able to identify the perpetrator(s) after so many months.

This situation not only is a severe nuisance to residents – dramatically lowering the value of their apartments by the constant disruption – but it also presents a severe safety hazard. The danger is compounded by the fact that the elevators at 3003 Van Ness are frequently out or order, preventing residents, particularly the elderly and disabled, from quickly exiting the building. 

To make matters worse, the tenant association recently learned from the DC Fire Department that the alarm systems at 3003 Van Ness had been disconnected from the call centers that are supposed to relay emergency calls to the DC Fire Department. Residents assume that when alarms sound at 3003 Van Ness, the Fire Department will soon be on its way. However, it turns out that it hasn’t even been called.”

See the entire letter at this link.

Letter to Equity Residential Senior VP Frances Nolan re: fire hazard at 3003 Van Ness

The Van Ness South Tenants Association sent a letter Sunday evening to Equity Residential Senior Vice President Frances Nolan, regarding the spate of fire alarms that have been going off at 3003 Van Ness several times weekly for months.

Fire alarms have gone off so frequently at 3003 Van Ness, both day and night, that many residents don’t leave the building when they go off.

The tenant association and individual residents have complained many times to Equity Residential management about the problem with constant fire alarms and also about the lack of security at 3003 Van Ness.

Equity Residential’s failure to address such problems has caused fury among residents.

VNSTA Appeals DC DHCD's Rejection of FOIA Request for Rents Database

The Van Ness South Tenants Association sent a letter today to the Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel (MOLC), appealing the decision by the DC Department of Housing and Community Development’s to deny VNSTA’s FOIA of the long-awaited, legally mandated rents database.

It appears that the database being prepared for release does not include historical data, meaning that it would be practically useless as a tool for researching rents prior to the publication of the database. This would prevent DC residents from investigating past efforts by some rental housing providers to overcharge residents by circumventing the city’s rent stabilization laws, which limit annual rent increases to 2% plus a measure of inflation (inflation only for those aged 62 or older.)

Moreover, the letter from VNSTA to MOLC argues that past efforts by DHCD to make some rental housing data online have been substantially flawed and not an operational database.

For these reason, VNSTA requests that MOLC overturn DHCD’s decision to withhold the data requested via FOIA, so that the database in progress can be reviewed before it is released later this year.

DC Department of Housing and Community Development Rejects VNSTA’s FOIA

Today, the DC Department of Housing and Community Development rejected a Freedom of Information Act request by the Van Ness South Tenants Association.

The request submitted by VNSTA states:

We request the most up-to-date draft version of the Rent Control Housing Database mandated by DC law under §42–3502.03c. Public Accessible Rent Control Housing Database.

We request access to an operational version of the database so we can review its functioning before it is released to the public later this year. (Date Range for Record Search: From 01/01/2023 To 07/25/2023)

The reason for the request is approximately eight years have passed since the DC Council approved legislation mandating a user-friendly, public database of rents. Such a database would enable DC residents to search for information about rents in various apartment buildings.

Reports have indicated that the database, which is slated to be released this fall, does not contain historical data — i.e., it currently is not a useful research tool. If true, this also means that DC renters, policymakers and the press cannot investigate systematic overcharging by some companies in the rental housing industry. While some residents, like those of 3003 Van Ness who were harmed, have received restitution for overcharges, thousands of other DC renters may not know that they were overcharged.

VNSTA Shares a Kind Note from a Member Who is Moving

One active member of the Van Ness South Tenants Association recently announced that he has decided to move out of 3003 Van Ness and buy a condo. He sent this nice note to the VNSTA listserv and members of the tenant association.

It has been an absolute pleasure being a part of the Van Ness South Tenants Association. This group is comprised of some of the most caring and thoughtful individuals any community could ask for.

Collectively, we all worked towards promoting and protecting our community from our absentee landlord and demanded more than just the minimum from management.

VNSTA president files legal motion to interview Equity senior employees under oath

Harry Gural, president of the Van Ness South Tenants Association, today filed a legal brief with the DC Office of Administrative Hearings, requesting the right to question senior Equity employees and other staff under oath, otherwise known as conducting depositions. The brief also requested the right to compel Equity Residential to provide documents pertaining to its efforts to illegally raise Gural’s rent using so-called “rent concessions,” a method that Equity has used to circumvent the rent stabilization provisions of DC law.

Today’s filing is part of a seven-year battle with Equity Residential and its subsidiary, Smith Property Holdings Van Ness LP, which began when the tenant association received dozens of complaints from residents of 3003 Van Ness that Equity Residential was demanding rent increases that far exceeded what are permissible under rent stabilization (a maximum of inflation plus 2% annually for renters under age 62).

Residents reported that Equity was demanding rent increases of several hundred dollars per month up to more than $1,500 per month, by falsely claiming that the current rent charged was far above the amount actually paid. Gural reported this practice to the office of former Attorney General Karl Racine, which filed suit against Equity Residential, winning $1 million in restitution for residents who were overcharged plus legal fees.

After losing two seminal cases in court, including an appeal by Gural to the Rental Housing Commission, and after the passage of a law clarifying that the words “rent charged” in DC rental housing law mean “the rent that is actually charged,” Equity Residential appears to have ceased using the “rent concession” scam — except in the case of VNSTA president Harry Gural. Gural argues that this is a clear act of retaliation against him for his advocacy on behalf of tenants, and his successful effort to put an end to the rent concession scam citywide.

Equity Residential has overcharged Gural by almost $50,000, of which he has been forced to pay almost $25,000 over seven years, in addition to his monthly rent.

Gural plans to seek damages from Equity Residential and its subsidiary, Smith Property Holdings Van Ness LP. DC law calls for damages up to triple the overcharges, and also calls for $5,000 for each act of retaliation against a member of a tenant association. In addition, Gural seeks compensation for the more than 1,000 hours he has spent working on his case and on related tasks that have occupied much of his time over the past seven years.

In addition, he seeks punitive damages on behalf of Equity customers who were overcharged via the “rent concession” scam, including other residents of 3003 Van Ness and of several other Equity Residential / Smith Property Holdings apartment buildings in DC.

Email to Equity Residential re: no security guard at broken garage doors

From: Harry Gural
Date: Mon, Jun 26, 2023 at 10:38 AM
Subject: Security risk -- Garage doors widen open with no security guard
To: Joshua Luper
Cc: Stacey Aguiar

Josh,

Given all the security problems we have had at 3003 Van Ness, and given that the DC Attorney General has threatened to file suit against Equity Residential under the Drug-, Firearm-, or Prostitution-Related Nuisance Abatement Law, residents were upset to find out that Equity hasn't posted 24/7 security at the wide-open garage doors. Doors from the garage to the main buildings are almost always broken or the locks jammed, so the lack of a guard at the garage doors not only gives intruders access to hundreds of residents' cars, but also easy access to the interior of the buildings.

While we understand that the doors are broken (again), it is Equity's responsibility to secure the building. Residents are paying over $2,000 to live at 3003 Van Ness, so they have a reasonable right to expect that Equity will make reasonable efforts to make sure that if exterior doors are broken, that Equity will post a 24/7 guard. As a $24 billion company, Equity Residential surely can afford to do this much to assure its customers of a safe living environment.

Equity Residential has had very serious security problems at 3003 Van Ness, and so it must take reasonable steps to secure the property. We request that you take immediate steps to post a 24/7 guard at the entrance to the underground garages until those doors can be repaired.

Harry Gural
President
Van Ness South Tenants Association

Letter to Equity Residential regarding the switch to air conditioning

VNSTA president Harry Gural today sent a letter to building manager Josh Luper, requesting that he plan carefully for the conversion of the 3003 Van Ness from heat to air conditioning for the summer season.

Dear Josh,

I am writing to request that Equity Residential take into consideration weather conditions when planning for the conversion from heat to air conditioning at 3003 Van Ness.

As you know, some periods in March and April were miserable for residents due to unseasonably high temperatures. We understand that DC law requires landlords to be able to provide heat through May 1st, which delays the switch to air conditioning in buildings with two-pipe heating systems.

However, you can plan to make the switch to air conditioning as soon after May 1st as weather conditions warrant. We request that you keep an eye on the long-term forecast so you can begin the change from heat to air conditioning so that the AC is fully functional before temperatures rise and apartments became unbearably hot.

We will appreciate your attention to detail regarding this important issue.

Sincerely yours,

Harry Gural

President, Van Ness South Tenants Association

Read the letter in print-friendly format.