Tenant association objects to invasion of privacy by Equity Residential "inspections"

The Van Ness South Tenant Association today sent a letter to Dan Burkes, general manager of Equity Residential’s apartment building at 3003 Van Ness, objecting to the company’s announced inspections of all units. Equity Residential has not disclosed the reason for such inspections, nor has it made provision to minimize inconveniencing residents or invading their privacy.

The letter begins:

Dear Mr. Burkes,

I have received dozens of emails from residents of 3003 Van Ness who have expressed their concern about Equity Residential’s announced plan to inspect all units in the building, without the permission of residents.

Residents have a right to privacy – their apartments are their homes. Equity’s sudden and unscheduled inspections are an invasion of that privacy. Residents have called this an “intrusion,” “unacceptable,” and “outrageous.”

Specifically, the letter requests that Equity Residential:

• Strictly abide by DC law regarding inspections.

• Announce to all residents the purpose of the inspections, as required by law.

• Provide at least 48 hours warning of inspections as required by law, including a statement of the first possible date of the inspection of a given unit and the last possible date.

• Mandate that an Equity Residential employee accompany any outside inspectors or potential buyers who enter apartment units.

• Order inspectors not to photograph personal belongings in units.

• Leave written notice after an inspection has been completed.

• In the case of residents who provide written notice objecting to an inspection, negotiate with the tenant a date and time that is convenient for him or her for an inspection to take place.

Read the entire letter in printer-friendly format.

Court finds that Equity Residential overcharged tenant president by almost $47,000 — orders restitution

The Office of Administrative hearings yesterday issued a final ruling in the case of Harry Gural v. Equity Residential / Smith Property Holdings Van Ness LP, ordering Equity Residential to VNSTA president Gural $46,798 plus $13,090 in interest — a total of $59,888.

Gural followed his complaint against Equity Residential in August 2016, claiming that the company was charging him $297 per month more than DC law allows in a rent-stabilized building. The increase demanded by Equity was almost 20%, whereas the maximum legal increase that year was only 3.5%.

The reason Gural filed his initial complaint in the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) is that almost 100 residents of 3003 Van Ness came to him asking for help fighting extremely large rent increase demands by Equity Residential, some almost as high as $1,500 per month. After much negotiation between those tenants and Equity, the company usually offered a large “discount” — which it called a “rent concession” — so that the actual rent increase would be much lower. However, the effective rent increase was often substantially higher than allowed by DC law.

Because so many residents and members of the tenant association reported such problems with the $27 billion Equity Residential, Gural refused to sign a new lease with a fraudulent, inflated amount listed as the “rent.” Equity subsequently filed suit against him in the Landlord and Tenant Branch of DC Superior Court, getting the judge to force Gural to pay $297 per month under a “protective order,” which (wrongfully) assumed that Equity’s argument was correct. Over the course of eight years, Gural has been forced to pay out of pocket $29,474 into court escrow.

The Office of Administrative hearings ruled in favor of Equity Residential in 2017, accepting the corporation’s novel interpretation of the word “rent,” which the company complained could exceed the actual rent paid by hundreds of dollars per month.

Gural appealed the OAH decision to the Rental Housing Commission, which in 2020 overturned the lower court decision, agreeing with Gural that the word “rent” has its plain English meaning. Specifically, “the Commission concluded that the phrase "rent charged" is intended to refer to the rent actually demanded or received from a tenant…”

The case moved slowly in 2020-22 with multiple delays due to the COVID pandemic. In 2023 and 2024, proceedings and filings came in a flurry as the date for another formal hearing in the Office of Administrative Hearing approached.

At a hearing in February 2024, Equity Residential property manager for 3003 Van Ness, Josh Luper, claimed that he did not know the meaning of the word “rent,” affirming Equity’s claim that the “rent” can exceed the amount paid by hundreds of dollars.

Even in its closing arguments for the case, Equity Residential claimed that it could not possibly have known the meaning of the word “rent.”

Finally, on August 28, 2024, the Administrative Law Judge in the Office of Administrative Hearings issued a final ruling in the case, finding that Equity Residential had overcharged Harry Gural — as he had claimed eight years ago. The judge ordered Equity Residential to pay Gural $46,798 for the overcharges, plus $13,090 in interest — a total of almost $60,000 ($59,888).

Given the thousands of hours and eight years that Gural has spent fighting Equity in court over the simple meaning of the word “rent,” a $60,000 award represents less than minimum wage.

Gural had argued that Equity’s overcharges were made in bad faith, which by DC law would mean that Equity would be compelled to pay him triple the amount of the overcharges. However, the judge ruled that Equity did not act in bad faith because she did not believe that it acted out of “sinister motives” or the “intent to deceive or defraud.” Gural had pointed out in his rebuttal to Equity Residential’s final arguments that it is extremely unlikely that a $27 billion Real Estate Investment Trust, a Fortune 500 company with upscale properties in major cities around the United States, did not know the meaning of the word “rent.”

Furthermore, he has pointed out that Equity Residential continued to overcharge him despite losing three court cases on the rent issue, including the DC Attorney General’s case, District of Columbia vs. Equity Residential Management, which forced Equity Residential to pay $1 million in restitution to residents of 3003 Van Ness.

Either party in Harry Gural v. Equity Residential may appeal the OAH decision within 10 business days of the date of the August 28th final ruling.

See a chronology of the entire case at this link.

VNSTA asks DC Department of Buildings to aggressively pursue code violations

The Van Ness South Tenants Association today sent a letter to Brian Hanlon, Director of the DC Department of Buildings (DOB), asking that he accelerate the pace of inspections at 3003 Van Ness and that he imposes and collect fines for housing code violations.

Recently, it was discovered that the Department of Buildings has cited Equity Residential for more than 700 housing code violations over the past year, totaling more than $1.2 million in fines. However, it has been reported that only one-third of the units have been inspected so far in DOB’s proactive inspection of the property, which began in August 2023.

If the inspection process were to proceed more quickly, and if approximately the same number of violations per unit were found, the total fines could exceed $3 million.

The letter to DOB raises questions about whether DOB policies regarding fines provide adequate incentives to force rental housing management companies like Equity Residential to keep their buildings in compliance with the housing code. Evidence suggests that DOB assesses fines but does not move aggressively to collect them — and in fact forgives them if the company remediates the code violation.

The letter to Director Hanlon from VNSTA president Harry Gural concludes:

“I strongly request that you take whatever steps necessary to move forward quickly with proactive inspections of the remaining two-thirds of units at 3003 Van Ness. Moreover, I ask that you seek full payment for all fines for all housing code violations that are discovered – and that you impose additional fines on those codes that are cited and subsequently not remediated.”

The Department of Buildings has levied more than $1.2 million in fines on Equity Residential for 3003 Van Ness over the past three years

The DC Department of Buildings has levied $1,218,612 in fines on Equity Residential for violations at 3003 Van Ness over the past three years. Almost 750 violations were cited.

The information was retrieved from the DOB’s SCOUT online data system and Landlord Violations Tool, covering the period between June 23, 2021, and June 6, 2024.

The Department of Buildings is currently conducting a building-wide inspection of 3003 Van Ness, as part of its Proactive Inspection Program. DOB chooses buildings for the program in which the landlord has a past history of a high number of violations.

Over the past year alone, DOB has issued more than 700 citations for violations at 3003 Van Ness as part of the building-wide proactive inspection. It has been reported that less than half of the 625 units have been inspected to date, so it is expected that the total number of violations and fines likely will rise.

It is not clear whether Equity Residential has paid any of the $1.2 million in fines to date.

Some of the violations cited are:

• Failure to maintain stairs and/or other walking surfaces in sound condition, good repair and free from hazardous conditions

• Failure to tightly secure the lock on entrance doors to dwelling units or sleeping units and/or failure to maintain locks on means of egress doors

• Failure to maintain all fire and smokestop doors in operable condition

• Failure of the owner to keep structure free from rodent infestation

• Failure to correct electrical system that constitutes a hazard to the occupants or the structure

• Failure to install an approved carbon monoxide alarm in the immediate vicinity of the bedrooms in dwelling units located in a building containing a fuel-burning appliance

• Failure to install or maintain single- or multiple-station smoke alarms in Group I-1 and R occupancies, and dwellings not regulated as Group R occupancies

• Failure to maintain in a safe and sanitary condition a public toilet facility

• Failure to have at least one grounded-type receptacle or a receptacle with a ground fault circuit interrupter in every laundry area

• Failure to have a means of egress indicated with approved Exit signs

• Failure to install an approved permanent sign adjacent to each manual fire alarm box that reads: “WHEN ALARM SOUNDS CALL FIRE DEPARTMENT” where fire alarm systems are not monitored by a supervising station

• Failure to keep every plumbing stack, vent, waste and sewer line free from obstructions, leaks, or defect

Problems with non-residents sleeping in common areas continue

Residents of 3003 Van Ness continue to report that apparent non-residents intermittently sleep in common areas of the building. A woman today found a man sleeping in a stairwell. She reported the incident in an email to Equity Residential building management, asking what Equity is doing to address the situation:

“What I would very much like to know is that the management is taking meaningful action to ensure the safety and security of the residents of 3003 Van Ness.”

Exterior security doors are frequently broken at 3003 Van Ness, allowing easy access to the building. The tenant association has provided video of broken doors many times to Equity management, but the problems persist. The tenant association also has repeatedly called on Equity Residential to hire a full-time, experienced security guard. The $27 billion Equity corporation refuses to do so, citing the cost.

In the past several years, 911 calls from residents of 3003 Van Ness to the DC police have massively increased to approximately one call per day, with little effort by Equity Residential to increase security.

Washington Post investigation finds rat infestation at an Equity Residential building in Dupont Circle

An investigation by The Washington Post recently found that residents of the upscale apartment building the Flats at Dupont, located in Dupont Circle. The building, like 3003 Van Ness, is owned and managed by Equity Residential.

Residents of 3003 Van Ness also have complained for many months about mice and rats at 3003 Van Ness, claiming that Equity Residential has failed to fix the problem, both in apartments and in some common areas, particularly the storage room.

The Post writes about the Flats at Dupont:

“One woman says she goes to bed armed with a stick in case a rat creeps too close in the dark. Another says she goes to the bathroom with an empty water bottle to throw at rats. Others say they have come back from vacation to find their floors covered in rodent feces.”

“Dozens of residents argue that management has ignored their pleas for help and requests for rent relief. Breaking a long-term lease with Equity is costly, leaving some feeling stuck. When their emails go unanswered, residents feel that management is minimizing the issue or making it appear that a problem has already been solved, they said.”

The Washington Post investigation raises questions about whether Equity Residential’s failure to deal with rodent infestations is an isolated issue, or if it has decided that remediation is not part of its corporate strategy.

Some former residents of 3003 Van Ness have said that they moved out of the building specifically because Equity did not fix chronic rodent problems in their units.

The DC Department of Buildings is currently conducting a full-building inspection of 3003 Van Ness, which has turned up many dozens of housing code violations, with fines of $1,218 or $2,436 per offense. DC DOB records show that Equity Residential has been fined more than $1.2 million for violations at 3003 Van Ness in recent years. It is not clear whether these fines have been paid.

Tenant organizations including 86 members ask DHCD to redesign a misleading rent increase form

Representatives of 12 tenant associations and organizations today sent a letter to Colleen Green, Director of the DC Department of Housing and Community Development, requesting that the agency redesign a misleading form for announcing rent increases to renters. The letter was sign by 86 tenant leaders and tenant association members in Washington, D.C.

Specifically, the letter states:

“The form, RAD Form 8, is sent by rental housing management companies to tenants, announcing annual rent increases. However, the DHCD letterhead and logo make it appear that DHCD is the sender. This gives recipients the impression that the amounts recorded in the fields are issued by the DC government, erroneously implying that they are obligatory.”

DC renters are often confused by the form, which appears to come from the DC Department of Housing and Community Development, but instead is sent by rental property owners or managers. The form misleading states that a certain increase “will” be imposed beginning on a certain date, making it appear the DC laws make such increases automatic.

In fact, DC law sets a limit on the percentage that a landlord can raise the rent annual in a rent-stabilized building, but renters may negotiate a lower increase — or no increase at all. Moreover, according to the law, landlords cannot raise the rent if conditions in the unit or the building substantially violate the DC housing code.

If renters have been systematically misled into believing that rent increases are automatic when they are not, it could substantially contribute to the rising cost of housing in the District of Columbia.

The signatories close the letter requesting that DHCD hire an expert outside consultant to redesign the form, and that they be included in the redesign process.

Signatories of the letter include leaders and members of these organizations:

• Van Ness South Tenants Association

• Brandywine Tenant Association

• Sedgwick Gardens Tenant Association

• Connecticut House Tenants Association

• Kenmore Residents Association

• Kennedy Warren Residents Association

• 4000 Mass Ave Tenants Association

• Parkwest Tenant Association

• 3220 Parkway Tenants Association

• 1600 16th Street NW Tenants Association

• Rittenhouse Tenants Association

• DC Tenants’ Advocacy Coalition (TENAC)

Read the entire letter in printer-friendly PDF format.

Tenant association president calls for triple penalties in "rent concession" case

Harry Gural, president of the Van Ness South Tenants Association, filed his 41-page closing arguments along with 81 pages of exhibits in his eight-year legal battle against Equity Residential for overcharging him using its “rent concession” scam. Gural is requesting that the court force Equity Residential to pay him more than $150,000 penalties — three times the amount that Equity has overcharged him over this period — as required by law when the landlord overcharges a tenant in bad faith.

In response, Equity Residential filed its final arguments, restating its claim that before recent related court decisions it did not know the meaning of the word “rent.”

DC law states that in older buildings that are subject to rent stabilization, property owners may raise the rent annually by a maximum of 2% plus inflation. In order to circumvent the law, Equity Residential wrote leases with “rent” amounts that far exceeded the actual rent paid, claiming that the “rent charged” could be $1,000 or more per month higher than the rent that is actually charged.

Equity Residential had invented a new definition of the word “rent” — one that was neither in a standard English dictionary in in DC law.

Using its own definition of the word “rent” and the words “rent charged,” Equity Residential in 2016 demanded that Gural pay a rent increase of 20% ($297 per month) instead of the 3.5% ($65) allowed by law.

As president of the tenant association, Gural contacted the office of DC Attorney General Karl Racine in 2016, requesting help for other tenants who complained that Equity Residential had demanded that they pay rent increases of $1,000 or more per month. In 2022, a judge in DC Superior Court handed down a $2 million judgment against Equity Residential for deceiving and overcharging its customers at 3003 Van Ness.

However, the judgment affected only residents of 3003 Van Ness, despite the fact that Equity Residential appears to have used the same rent scam in its other six rent-stabilized properties.

Gural’s case against Equity Residential is distinct from the Attorney General’s case — he had filed the complaint before the Attorney General decided to sue Equity Residential on behalf of the residents of 3003 Van Ness.

In 2020, Gural won the main part of his case on appeal to the Rental Housing Commission (RHC), which issued a strong decision in his favor confirming that the word “rent” in DC law has its plain English meaning, i.e., the amount a person pays for the right to occupy a rental unit. The RHC sent the case back down to the Office of Administrative Hearings for a final decision on related issues, including Gural’s claim that Equity had retaliated against him for his work assisting other tenants.

Nevertheless, eight years after Gural filed his initial complaint, Equity Residential continues to claim that it could not possibly have known the meaning of the word “rent” before the 2020 RHC decision and a related case, Gabriel Fineman v. Smith Property Holdings, or before it lost the Attorney General’s case against it, District of Columbia v. Equity Residential.

While Gural’s tenant petition in the Office of Administrative Hearings against Equity Residential has been litigated over eight years, Equity Residential’s lawsuit against Gural in DC Superior Court over the same issues has been on hold. However, Equity convinced the court in 2016 to force Gural to pay $297 per month into escrow to protect the company’s interests — Gural has now paid $29,474 to date. Moreover, Equity claims that Gural owes the company more than $50,000.

The law calls for restitution to the tenant of three times the amount of the overcharge in the case of bad faith. Gural has asked the court for triple the overcharges — more than $150,000 — because Equity has continued to overcharge Gural despite several court decisions finding that it’s novel definition of the word “rent” is wrong.

In response to Equity Residential’s closing arguments, Gural submitted his final rebuttal — a short overview of the case that points out that Equity continues to object to the simple definition of the English word “rent” and the phrase “rent charged,” despite the fact that the Rental Housing Commission has ruled against Equity’s claim that a radically different definition could apply. In response to Gural’s final rebuttal, Equity filed its own rebuttal — again claiming a novel definition of the word “rent.”

Both parties await a final decision by the Chief Justice of the Office of Administrative Hearings.

VNSTA again asks Equity Residential to fix the fire alarms and address fire safety issues

Residents of 3003 Van Ness have for a long time endured frequent fire alarms at 3003 Van Ness — mostly false alarms. The alarms have gone off both day and night, sometimes several times a week. While the situation has improved somewhat in recent months, a serious problem persists.

Last night, beginning at about 12:30 am, the fire alarms sounded constantly and then intermittently until after 3:00 am. There apparently was no Equity Residential employee on site at the 625-unit building to provide information to residents.

Because of the chronic fire safety issues at 3003 Van Ness, the tenant association sent a letter today to new General Manager Dan Burkes, asking him to take action to improve the situation. The letter was cc’ed to Equity Residential Senior Vice President Frances Nolan and to Equity Residential Senior Regional Manager Stacey Aguiar.

VNSTA requests better maintenance of laundry rooms

The Van Ness South Tenants Association today sent a letter and report to Equity Residential general manager Dan Burkes about the conditions of the laundry rooms at 3003 Van Ness. The report, which focuses on the west building, documented numerous problems.

The letter states:

“In recent years, Equity Residential has made little effort to adequately maintain the laundry rooms and has taken no responsibility for the washing machines and dryers, which are owned by an outside vendor. As a result, the machines are frequently in disrepair, and the laundry rooms often have dirty floors, lint, construction debris, frequent leaks and standing water, as well as large holes in the plaster walls. Some of the machines are not properly anchored to the floors, and the dryer vents are not properly connected to the exhaust shafts in the walls.”

Read the entire letter in printer-friendly format.