Fairfield’s newly formed fair rent commission held its first hearing, reaching a compromise between a resident and her corporate landlord.
Fairfield resident Janine Darling said her 1,000-square-foot apartment isn’t worth a nearly $1,000 boost in rent.
“I'm in a middle class to blue collar neighborhood a mile from Bridgeport,” Darling said. “There's nothing fancy or nothing wonderful about my neighborhood.”
Darling said her landlord is unresponsive when asked for repairs, and the apartment is not worth the rent increase.
“Making a profit from it by trying to charge me the rent that is unconscionable is simply not the way to do it,” Darling said.
The commission’s task was to determine whether Darling’s corporate landlord, Redwood Capital Advisors, and its request of a roughly $1,000 monthly rent increase — from $2,150 to $3,100 — was “harsh and unconscionable.”
With a rough set of guidelines, the commission was able to decide how it wanted to proceed, Commission Chair Thomas Lambert said.
“In some ways, we are guided by what we have as our ordinance or charges, but in other ways, we're kind of making this up as we go along,” Lambert said. “Our idea is, though, for everybody to have a fair shake.”
Kurosh Marjani, the attorney representing Redwood, said rent in the low $3,000s was justifiable.
“It's self-evident that the increase is a big increase. I mean, that's not avoidable, deniable. Obviously, we feel like it was below market, and we're bringing it up to market,” Marjani said.
Ultimately, the commission decided on a gradual rent increase of about $400, up to $2,500, and requested several repairs on Darling’s behalf.
A change in state housing law
Fairfield’s Fair Rent Commission formed last September, as part of a Connecticut Department of Housing statute change requiring all municipalities with 25,000 or more residents to create a fair rent commission. The statute indicates the creation of the commission is designed “to control and eliminate excessive rental charges.”
The commission’s tasks are to conduct studies and investigations, hold hearings, receive rent complaints, require people to appear at hearings under oath, issue subpoenas and orders regarding rent increases.
The 45 towns and cities with the requisite population account for 80% of the state’s housing units, according to housing advocacy nonprofit Partnership for Strong Communities.
The state made the requirement as most communities have nowhere for residents to turn when they feel the rent increase is unfair.
“In its absence, there is for most tenants no entity that can resolve a complaint of excessive rent,” according to the partnership.
Several Fairfield County communities had fair rent commissions prior to the 2022 law change, including Norwalk, Bridgeport, Danbury and Stamford. Following the mandate, smaller municipalities were required to form commissions, including Fairfield, Greenwich, Newtown, Ridgefield and Stratford.
