Tenants Union Files Retaliation Claims

Tenants union members from a downtown apartment building walked their fight for renters’ rights over to City Hall — and then to state court — in a bid to push back on unwelcome news from their new landlord. 

Alexander Kolokotronis, RJ Hinds, Stephanie Perez, James Blau, and Yvonne Byrd-Griffin, all tenants of the Emerson Apartments at 284 Orange St., walked a few blocks to City Hall Monday morning to deposit with the Fair Rent Commission a dozen complaints against their new landlord, Michael Hayes. Those complaints allege that the lease-non-renewal notices that their building’s new property management company posted on tenants’ doors constitute illegal retaliation.

The tenants are filing complaints under two statutes — one state level, and one local. 

State statute Sec. 47a-20 protects tenants from retaliation from landlords for six months after ​“the tenant has organized or become a member of a tenants’ union.” The residents of the Emerson Apartments formed a tenants union in February.

The other statute, Chapter 12 ¾ of Title III of the New Haven Code of Ordinances, prohibits landlords from not renewing leases ​“because a tenant has filed a complaint with the fair rent commission.” Blau and Kolokotronis each filed complaints with the Fair Rent Commission in February for ​“being charged rent for an uninhabitable apartment.” Those cases were dropped, according to Kolokotronis, because ​“property manager Raymond Sola refunded [their] rent.”

The tenants want to stay. ​“As an ultimate resolution, we’re hoping our new landlord comes to the bargaining table,” Kolokotronis said. Kolokotronis has been living in a hotel room since flooding made his apartment uninhabitable in February. 

“All we’re asking is that you work with us,” Byrd-Griffin said. ​“Or pay us to get out.” She doesn’t know if she has the money to move — she’s approaching her retirement, and the news of the lease non-renewal has thrown a wrench into those plans. Her lease expires in October. 

“Am I going to be able to retire like I was supposed to?” Byrd-Griffin wondered. She’s going to see what her options are as a ​“senior citizen” (she’s ​“still owning up to that” title, she said), but ​“still want[s] to fight” alongside her neighbors.

In a conference room on the second floor of City Hall, tenants took their retaliation-complaint forms out of a red plastic folder and handed them to Fair Rent Commission Field Representative Lee Osorio, who accepted them, and promised the tenants a timely response from Fair Rent Commission Executive Director Wildaliz Bermudez. 

As of Monday afternoon, Bermudez confirmed that the commission had received the tenants’ complaints, was currently reading them, and would investigate further. 

After finishing at the Fair Rent Commission, the tenants proceeded upstairs for an impromptu visit to the offices of the Livable City Initiative (LCI). ​“We’d kind of like to have a new inspection,” Blau said to Administrative Assistant Shawn Goodhue, arguing that the last inspection reports didn’t accurately reflect the damage to his apartment. ​“We want to make sure the new landlord gets notice.” 

Goodhue assured him that a second report detailing the damage had already been drawn up and any reports made under the previous landlord would be forwarded to the new one. 

“We go in person because calling and e‑mailing is borderline impossible,” Blau told the Independent.

The tenants paused in the lobby of City Hall to help Kolokotronis fill out a Verified Lockout Complaint and Application for Temporary Injunction form. Kolokotronis discovered he was locked out of his apartment last Sunday. For him, even though he hasn’t lived in the apartment since February, because of his displacement to a hotel in Southington, ​“it’s about access to possessions.”

Armed with the form, the tenants (minus Hinds, who left to go back to work) crossed Elm Street to the Connecticut Superior Court at 121 Elm. They walked up to the Housing Sessions on the second-floor mezzanine to deposit the lockout complaint form — only to be asked to also fill out an Entry And Detainer Proceedings Summons and Order To Show Cause form and pay a $175 filing fee. 

“It’s as though you had to give your credit card to the cops when you get mugged,” Blau said. 

These forms filed with the Housing Sessions started legal proceedings against Hayes and his company, City Restorations, LLC, in order to end the lockout. If a judge approves the order, Kolokotronis must deliver the service papers at least six days before a trial — which could be as soon as next Tuesday. 

Hayes did not respond to a request for comment from the Independent.