The Portside Towers Tenant Associations (East and West), along with four individual tenants, filed a $400 million federal lawsuit against their landlord, Equity Residential, over “a systematic pattern of fraudulent concealment” regarding rent control.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“I mentioned at the first Rent Leveling Board hearing [on 5/31/23] that if we are forced to go to court, we would seek over $400 million in damages,” Portside Towers East Tenant Association President Kevin Weller said in a statement.
“This lawsuit has resulted because Equity Residential was not only unreasonable but continued to increase rents for over eight months since the tenants won via the unanimous board ruling. Equity chose to abandon the last opportunity they had to settle this at a discount.”
The 38-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court today, gives an extensive history of the two buildings, located at 100 Warren St. and 155 Washington St., dating back to the first time the property was transferred on September 20th, 1988.
Represented by attorneys Mollie Hartmann Lustig, Brett Gallaway, Eric Nemeth, and Neil Marotta, the tenants are seeking to prove substantial damages due to Equity not abiding by New Jersey rent control laws, even after the Jersey City Rent Leveling Board ruled they are subject to rent control in October.
“Defendants engaged in a systematic pattern of fraudulent concealment designed to prevent tenants from discovering their rights under applicable rent control laws,” the lawsuit alleges.
“This pattern included: Providing false or misleading information in lease agreements;
Omitting required disclosures about rent control status; Misrepresenting the basis for rent increases; Submitting false statements to government agencies; and using complex pricing algorithms to obscure the true nature of rent calculations.”
The lawsuit also alleges that Equity collected over $140 million in excess rent they were not entitled to over the years.
“The rent increases imposed on these Plaintiffs, unlawful from the very start of each tenancy due to illegal base rates and compounded by subsequent increases, demonstrate a pattern of systematic and pervasive overcharging by Defendants, in clear violation of applicable law,” the tenants allege through counsel.
“This pattern has affected all Tenants across both Buildings since the inception of their tenancies, resulting in significant financial hardship and, in some cases, even homelessness.”
The court filing also alleges violation of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, unjust enrichment, and Common Law Fraud.
In addition to rent overcharges and overpayment to lease renewals, the plaintiffs claim that Equity provided false or misleading information in lease agreement, omitting required disclosures about rent control status, misrepresenting the basis for rent increases, and
submitting false statements to government agencies.
They are also seeking punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, pre- and post-judgement interest, a declaration that defendants’ actions violated the law, any other relief the court deems just and equitable, along with damages in an amount to be determined at trial for all three causes of action.
Counsel for Equity did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Tenants arent going to win..these are luxury buildings..because they didnt file the proper documents it does not now become rent control.They will be punished by a hefty fine but nothing goes to the tenants.
Equity Residential never filed the paperwork to be exempt from rent control, thus pretending they didn’t know the law doesn’t exempt it from compliance. Even worse when Jersey City Rent Leveling Board decided in 2023 that portside towers should have always been under Rent Control and Equity once again ignored the law just because they don’t agree….Finally Equity will be held accountable for knowingly breaking the law.