HARTFORD, CT – State legislators and members of the public attended an inaugural forum about fair rent commissions on Tuesday and learned about the role they can play in mediating disputes between tenants and landlords.
“In 2022, we required towns with over 25,000 residents to adopt an ordinance through their legislative bodies to set up fair rent commissions,” Sen. Marylin Moore, D-Bridgeport, said at the opening of the forum.
A fair rent commission (FRC) is a municipal board with the power to limit or modify rent increases and other rental charges so as to prevent them from being so “excessive” that they are “harsh and unconscionable” and to reset them to “fair and equitable.” The first fair rent commissions were set up in 1969, and today 52 of Connecticut’s towns have commissions.
FRCs are essentially mediation boards that are staffed with local community members. Tenants, landlords, and other town residents function as commissioners for the FRCs, which have wide discretion to determine whether rent increases are excessive. The FRCs determine this by applying 13 statutory factors, including size and history of rent increases, the condition of the rental property, the landlord’s operating costs, and others.
“I’ve described fair rent commissions as reflecting the conscience of the community in terms of rents in the community,” said panelist Rafie Podolsky, an attorney at Connecticut Legal Services.
There are several different kinds of cases that FRCs may consider. The main type of case that FRCs consider are rental increases. FRCs may also hear cases regarding unsafe or unhealthy housing conditions, reductions of housing services, and retaliation.
CT Towns With Fair Rent Commissions
- Branford
- Bloomfield
- Bridgeport
- Bristol
- Cheshire
- Clinton
- Colchester
- Danbury
- East Hartford
- East Haven
- Enfield
- Fairfield
- Farmington
- Glastonbury
- Greenwich
- Groton
- Hamden
- Hartford
- Killingworth
- Manchester
- Mansfield
- Meriden
- Middletown
- Milford
- Naugatuck
- New Britain
- New Haven
- New London
- New Milford
- Newington
- Newtown
- Norwalk
- Norwich
- Ridgefield
- Rocky Hill
- Shelton
- Simsbury
- South Windsor
- Southington
- Stamford
- Stratford
- Torrington
- Trumbull
- Vernon
- Wallingford
- Waterbury
- Westbrook
- West Hartford
- West Haven
- Westport
- Wethersfield
- Windsor
When an FRC has finished considering a complaint, it can take several actions. If the commission finds in favor of the landlord, then the commission will let the rent increase go forward without interference.
If the FRC finds in favor of a tenant, it can take action in a variety of ways ranging from denying or reducing a rent increase to lowering a tenant’s rent until a stipulated condition is met.
“Some of the actions our fair rent commission has taken include setting rental increases to only 10% of the amount sought, or allowing the total increase of the rent that the landlord is requesting,” said Wildaliz Bermudez, Executive Director of New Haven’s Fair Rent Commission.
“In the case that landlords aren’t meeting the requirements of fixing unsafe and unhealthy housing conditions, the commissioners have reduced the tenant’s rent to half,” she said. “In the most egregious cases, commissioners have ruled to reduce the tenant’s rent to $1, until all repairs are made and the property has passed housing inspection with the city of New Haven.”
The other major concern of the FRCs is to prevent retaliation against tenants by landlords after a tenant files a complaint. Retaliation by landlords can take several forms, including sexual, physical or verbal harassment; doubling down on rent increases for those who can least afford it; and reducing services such as removing a parking spot or decreasing the frequency of other services like snow and leaf removal.
In the case that an FRC finds that a landlord has taken retaliatory action against a tenant, it is empowered to act to protect the tenant. The FRC will issue a cease and desist to the landlord regarding specific retaliatory behavior.
However, Paul Boudreau of the Hamden Tenants’ Union took issue with his local commission’s approach to protecting tenants from retaliation.
“Our Fair Rent Commission does not follow up on retaliation. It took over a year and a half before we even had a form [to file retaliation complaints]. We’ve emailed. We’ve called. We’ve done everything,” he said. “I wake up every day with the anxiety of a man being hunted for sport, because there’s so many people who call me every day that are about to be evicted because a landlord is retaliating against them.
“In the end, they’re in that position because they had fair rent commission hearings. It puts them on the radar, and nothing gets done,” Boudreau said.
The event was attended by about 20 members of the public and eight state legislators.
