Fair Rent Commission Reaches Settlement, Caps Rent Hike for Milford Couple

December 13, 2024 - by Nick Sambides - CT Examiner -  MILFORD - The city Fair Rent Commission's first complaint — filed by a municipal housing advocate aiming to demonstrate how the new board can support renters — is expected to end with a settlement.

The agreement creates a more affordable and flexible rental arrangement between Thomas J. Ivers, a public housing and community development specialist working for the Town of Fairfield and his landlord, Spinnaker Milford Apartment Homes.

Ivers and his wife, Marcia, live in a two-bedroom, 1,000-square-foot unit at Spinnaker Crest Apartments on Noble Avenue.

The settlement spares the couple from a potential 78% rent hike to $5,432 per month. Instead, the Ivers will pay $3,341 per month, according to the Informal Conference Agreement created by commission administrator Julie Nash, the city’s economic and community development coordinator.

“It was a win because it worked out for me and it made the commission’s existence have some significance,” Ivers, 70, told CT Examiner. “If the Fair Rent Commission didn’t exist, it never would have seen any daylight.”

Spinnaker representatives were unavailable for comment this week. 

Spinnaker is owned by Paredim Partners, a New York-based property management firm which owns apartment buildings in Bloomfield, Milford, New Haven, Stamford, West Haven and Westport, according to its website.

Slow rollout, snags amid state pressure

The commission’s existence is already being viewed as a victory for people like Ivers, who is also a member of All In for Milford, a nonprofit affordable housing advocacy group.

The Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to create the commission in June 2023, meeting the deadline set by a new state law mandating the creation of fair rent boards in towns with at least 25,000 residents. 

Acting in response to an ongoing housing shortage and runaway rent increases, the state Legislature passed the law in 2022 to prevent excessive rental charges and to promote reasonable rent increases, harmonious relations between landlords and tenants, and to help ensure housing and health code compliance.

The vote altered city ordinances to immediately allow for a commission, but finding six people to fill the seats took time. In January, All In for Milford members pressed City Hall in a letter describing the need for a fair rent commission, implying that city leaders were slow-rolling the commission’s formation.

Officials responded that not enough qualified applicants had come forward.

The first three members were appointed by aldermen during a meeting on Feb. 5, according to meeting minutes, and the rest came afterward. The commission includes two members representing landlords — Republican Buddy Prete and Democrat Cheryl Lacadie — two representing tenants, and two representing residents who are neither. One of the six is an alternate.

However, the group has yet to hold its first meeting, according to Prete, largely due to the lack of complaints.

Ivers’ complaint was filed on Sept. 16 and then resubmitted on Oct. 28 to resolve formatting issues. 

Undisclosed ‘unfair trade practice’

Ivers’ dispute with Spinnaker began after a year of living in the apartment complex, when he and his wife wanted to switch from a three-month lease at $3,102 per month to a month-to-month lease as they searched for a new home, according to the complaint.

The complex offered a sliding scale of rent increases starting at $3,326 per month, the complaint said, based on how many months they wanted on a lease. Spinnaker told the couple that the increase reflected “the landlord’s current market rental rate,” Ivers wrote.

However, Ivers argued that the rents were too high for a building built in 2007 that still had its original heat pump, HVAC system, fixtures and appliances. The 17-year-old equipment looked worn and the apartment’s energy efficiency “is not comparable to the newer apartment buildings now in town,” he wrote.

“The gist of my complaint was that these are not market rents, that if they want to do a month-to-month lease, or a five-month lease, or an eight-month lease, it needs to be based on what the market says to be a fair rent,” he said.

The couple’s current rent was also set to increase automatically by $2,390 per month if they did not renew or announce plans to vacate 60 days prior to the lease’s expiration, the complaint stated.

Ivers found the automatic, built-in increase “extraordinary. I have never heard such a thing like that before, ever. Clearly it’s not market rate. It’s their fantasy market-rate.”

The complaint also said that Spinnaker requires tenants to pay for all bills for separately metered utilities — including sewer fees, which aren’t metered.  

Spinnaker took the annual assessment fee, divided it by the 365 days in the year, and charged “the tenants monthly as if this was a metered utility charge,” Ivers wrote. That fee is not necessarily unreasonable, he continued, but “the lack of disclosure and the misrepresentation of assessments as a utility charge is an unfair trade practice, and thus an unfair rental charge.”

Under the settlement, Ivers credited the company for conceding to several of his arguments. Their new lease will expire on May 7, is retroactive to Nov. 8, and requires the Ivers to provide a 30-day notice of any plans to vacate.

Spinnaker was also required to provide the Ivers with a renewed lease offer at least 30 days before the final month of the agreement, and will allow both sides to “discuss month to month rates or longer-term lease rates to arrive at a fair and equitable solution for both parties,” the agreement states.

Spinnaker also plans to amend its leasing agreement to state “an approximate amount” for sewer charges and specify “that this amount may vary based on unit [apartment] size and the Spinnaker community.”

Ivers said he is satisfied with the new deal and hopes that more tenants will pursue issues with landlords.

“I’m really interested in just helping the community become aware that there’s a commission, and that there’s a place where [residents] can go for relief, particularly with landlords like Spinnaker that are like big business-types,” he said. “You don’t have to put up with getting gouged.”

[ Nick Sambides Jr. ]   [ CT Examiner ]

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