Status Report on the Hardship Rent Increase

The Chilton Towers Tenants Association just made great strides
WE WON BOTH 2016 BATTLES!

  1. The Elizabeth Fair Rental Housing Board (“rent control board”)
    unanimously REJECTED the landlord’s 2016 “Capital Improvement” application to raise our rents to pay for the new radiators.
    That happened only because the Chilton Towers Tenants Association (CTTA) challenged the landlord at the hearings.
    Judge Karen M Cassidy agreed with the board’s ruling, dismissing the landlord’s appeal.
    So THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT IS ALL OVER!

  2. The Elizabeth city council RENEWED the rent control ordinance for another 2 years WITHOUT ANY CHANGES!
    The 3% with $20 cap for lease renewals REMAINS AS-IS!
EVERYBODY IS SAVING MONEY, EVERY MONTH because of these wins!

But don’t rest easy.
The rent control ordinance is up for renewal in 2018
The New Jersey Apartment Association (NJAA) will be lobbying on behalf of the landlords.
Top on their agenda is eliminating the $20 cap ON WHICH WE ALL RELY WHEN WE RENEW OUR LEASE!
That is why we MUST REMAIN VIGILENT to protect our rights as tenants.

The Empire Strikes Back

Because the 2016 Captial Improvement was denied and the $20 per month cap remains,
our landlord filed for a Hardship rent increase to recover the 2014 and 2015 expenses,
mainly the “fancoil project” (replacing the 55 year old radiators) and the brickwork that you see outside the building.

Click here to learn WHAT IS A HARDSHIP

Here is the “Notice To Tenants”: the big scary letter
you got in the mail and is on the wall by the mailboxes.
the cover letter
 the 2014 hardship
 the 2015 hardship
The INCREASE per apartment for the
2014 and 2015 hardship application is
$77.54 + $15.13 = $92.67 per room PER MONTH
FOREVER! (a PERMANENT rent increase)
apartment rooms increase
per month		 increase
per year
D K 3 $232.63 + $45.40 = $278.03 $3,336.36
A C H J 3 ½ $271.40 + $52.97 = $324.37 $3,892.44
B F I M P 4 $310.18 + $60.54 = $370.72 $4,448.64
G N 4 ½ $348.95 + $68.11 = $417.06 $5,004.72
E L 5 ½ $426.49 + $83.24 = $509.73 $6,116.76


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The First Hardship Hearing: May 17, 2017

May 17, 2017 was the first hearing of the landlord’s Hardship Application.
At that meeting, David Legow started his testimony by explaining all the documents the landlord submitted into evidence.

Special thanks to our neighbors who attended the first hearing.

What we learned:
  1. Our landlord, Chilton Towers LLC, seeks to make the hardship rental increase a permanent part of our monthly rent.

  2. Our landlord has hired four experts to argue its case: lawyer, property manager, financial expert, accountant.

  3. Our landlord is paying less interest on their present mortgage than they did in 1991.
    In 1991, Chilton Towers LLC paid $286,000 on their mortgage.
    For the year 2014, the mortgage interest was $68,000.
    For the year 2015, the mortgage interest was $62,727: a $223,000 savings!

  4. The attorney for Chilton Towers LLC/Legow Management, Mr. Gary Gordon,
    and the attorney for the Chilton Towers Tenants Association, Ms. Joan Pransky,
    discussed which formula the Elizabeth Fair Rental Housing Board should use when it makes it final decision.
    The Elizabeth Rent Control Ordinance has three formulas.
    The Rent Board chooses which formula to justify its final decision.

  5. The first witness for Chilton Towers LLC was Mr. David Legow.
    He represented Legow Management, the property manager for Chilton Towers LLC.
    Mr. Legow testified to the accuracy of the ledgers, bills, documents, and cancelled checks submitted to the Rent Board by Chilton Towers LLC.
    Ms. Pransky, the CTTA attorney, will continue to question Mr. Legow at the next hearing.

    6. Chilton Towers LLC is using the hardship portion of the Rent Control Ordinance
    to recover their costs for AC/Heat Fan Coil Units
    even though the Rent Control Board denied last year’s application under the Capital Improvement portion of the Rent Control Ordinance.
As we can see, the Elizabeth Fair Rental Housing Board has a very hard task in front of it:
should it raise the monthly rent of its fellow Elizabethans by as much as $500 each month?
It our job to persuade the Elizabeth Rent Control Board that our landlord, Chilton Towers LLC, is not entitled to the increase it is seeking.

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The Second Hardship Hearing: July 19, 2017

On July 19, 2017, the Elizabeth Fair Rental Housing Board held its second hearing regarding our landlord’s Hardship application.

MANY THANKS to all the neighbors who attended.

If you could not attend, ASK A NEIGHBOR WHO DID!
Everyone who attended the Fair Rental Housing Board meeting was impressed with the tenacity with which Joan Pransky is fighting the landlord’s application.
As the lawyer for the Chilton Tower Tenants Association, she aggressively digs into all the details to reveal defects in their claims,
and holds on like a bulldog until she gets the information she needs.
Her cross examination of David Legow proved that many important documents were missing from the Hardship application.
So much for transparency and full disclosure!

What more can I say to convey the importance of what is happening?
Everyone should be supporting the Chilton Towers Tenants’ Association to defend our right to stay in our homes.

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The Third Hardship Hearing was scheduled for December 20, 2017

It has been rescheduled to Wednesday January 17th, 2018 to allow negotiations to continue.

THIS IS ASYMMETRIC WARFARE

The landlord is using our own money against us, with several expert witnesses who will testify on his behalf.

The only way to win is to FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE!
We need expert witnesses to testify ON THE TENANTS BEHALF.
Join us AND DEFEND YOUR OWN SELF INTEREST.

WE HAVE ONLY JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT BACK