An email from VNSTA president Harry Gural to tenant association members
The Van Ness South Tenants Association fought for years to stop Equity Residential from using the "rent concession" scam to overcharge residents. Last week, WJLA-TV Channel 7 aired a news story about the DC Attorney General Karl Racine's big win on behalf of the residents of 3003 Van Ness, which includes $1 million in total restitution for residents who were overcharged.
The Attorney General's office is still working out details about which residents of 3003 Van Ness were overcharged and who will receive restitution. I am in frequent contact with the OAG and will share more information when I have it.
Residents of 3003 Van Ness led the fight against the rent concession scam. Now, we can help finish the battle by alerting the thousands or tens of thousands of other DC residents who collectively may have been overcharged by millions or tens of millions of dollars.
You can help by forwarding this email to your friends and to other renters citywide. And you can join me in demanding that the Bowser administration make a formal public statement about the scam and release records hidden in its archives that would show which major landlords used it to cheat their tenants.
For those who didn't live through the rent concession scam, weren't threatened with huge rent increases, or who didn't have time to follow the battles that ensued, here is what happened:
Equity Residential used fake discounts ("rent concessions") to demand illegal rent increases.
For many years, Equity Residential tricked new residents into signing leases with the "rent" listed as a figure that was hundreds of dollars more per month than the amount the tenant actually would pay. Leasing agents told tenants (falsely) that this was required by law and that that they would receive a "rent concession" -- a supposed discount -- so they rent paid would equal the advertised amount. However, the following year tenants received rent increase notices demanding huge rent increases, sometimes $500 per month or more -- even beyond $1,000. This terrified tenants and forced them to engage in long negotiations with building management, often still ending up with annual rent increases that exceeded the legal maximum of 2% plus inflation for residents under age 62. (For those who would like to learn more interesting details about how the rent scam works, see our companion website FairRentDC.)
Thousands of other Washington renters also may have been overcharged.
The Attorney General's successful suit on behalf of residents of 3003 Van Ness against Equity Residential helped put a final nail in the coffin of the rent concession scam. However, the only DC residents who will receive restitution are those residents of 3003 Van Ness who were overcharged -- renters at other Equity Residential buildings will not be compensated, despite the fact that records gathered by VNSTA under the Freedom of Information Act suggests that those renters also may have been cheated.
Additional evidence suggests that other large landlords also may have used the "rent concession" scam to overcharged DC residents. In fact, the scam may have been widespread. If so, tens of thousands of DC residents may have been overcharged by millions or tens of millions of dollars.
The city has known about this for years and has refused to release information that would help DC renters know whether or not they were being overcharged. The city is required by law to publish a public database of rents. A database would create more transparency in the rental market, and would help restrain rising rents. It also would make it possible to figure out which rental housing providers overcharged their tenants using the "rent concession" scam. However, the Bowser administration repeatedly has failed to produce a database of rents, tilting the scales in favor of the rental housing industry and preventing the public from knowing the full scale of the rent scam.
The Bowser administration repeatedly has refused to help.
Since 2015, I reported the rent concession scam many times to Bowser administration officials, including to the heads of the agencies overseeing housing. I spoke to Mayor Bowser three times in person and I wrote her four formal letters. I explained that thousands of DC renters -- not just residents of 3003 Van Ness -- were getting cheated. I asked her chief of staff (now a deputy mayor) at least to get the mayor to tweet about it to help get the word out. The Bowser administration did nothing.