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.