Rent Board Commisioners Turn Blind Eye to Landlord Fraud

Let’s assume, also, that at the hearing before an Administrative Law Judge, you have proven - through cross-examination of the landlord and with documentary evidence - that the landlord was less than truthful about material facts and, with respect to at least one of the items, was not entitled to her claimed capital improvement pass-through. You’ve also proven that two years earlier in a Rent Board hearing on another petition, the same landlord had attempted to mislead the judge and to defraud the tenants, and had failed in that attempted scam to raise the tenants’ rent.

Finally, let’s assume that the current judge - exhibiting both pro-landlord bias and utter ignorance of the Rent Board rule she was to required to follow - ignored the landlord’s attempt to deceive her and ruled in the landlord’s favor.

Then assume further that you appeal this judge’s decision to the Rent Board, a quasi-appellate court set up in 1979 mainly to protect tenants against landlord gouging and other mistreatment. The Board consists of five commissioners. Two of the commissioners are “tenants representatives” and two are “landlord representatives”, while one is a homeowner -- supposedly a “neutral.”

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