EASTHAMPTON — After two Pine Valley Realty tenants received letters informing them of $300 and $350 rent increases for their one-bedroom apartments, they refused to pay. By challenging the eviction, the tenants saw their efforts pay off as their landlord decided to settle.
Mona Shadi and Roland De Caires received letters in August notifying them of the rent increases as part of their new leases that would start in October — Shadi’s rent would have gone from $900 to $1,200, and De Caires’ from $725 to $1,075.
The two tenants live in the same 10-unit Pine Valley apartment complex on Northampton Street in Easthampton. Shadi and De Caires refused to sign the new leases, then challenged the subsequent eviction notices in court as no-fault. Because the landlord settled, the case did not go to trial.
The settlement, negotiated over two mediation sessions, calls for smaller rent increases of $45 and $50, respectively, for Shadi and De Caires, along with monetary damages and the opportunity for other Pine Valley tenants to engage in collective bargaining.
“We don’t want to squat, we don’t want a free lunch,” Shadi said about the mediation sessions. “We wanted a sustainable rent raise to let us stay in our home.”
Shadi said collective bargaining was a crucial aspect for her to negotiate into the settlement. Because of that, another negotiation session will take place in March to discuss options for other Pine Valley tenants.
Easthampton-based Pine Valley Realty owns about 230 residential units across 13 different complexes and several single-family homes. Pine Valley Office Manager Donna Gawle said the rolled-back increases will negatively impact the local landlord.
“We would like to stay in the community and we care for our tenants,” Gawle said.
In a previous interview with the Gazette, Gawle said since 2019, Pine Valley’s repair and maintenance costs have increased by 178%, property insurance costs by 140%, mortgage interest by 9%, and real estate taxes have increased.
Currently, Gawle said Pine Valley has two employees in the office — her and another part-time worker. The rolled-back rent increases will likely prevent Pine Valley from hiring another employee, during a busy tax season.
“The biggest impact is just that we need to hire another office manager and it looks like we won’t be able to do that for a little while,” Gawle said.
Rising rents
When Shadi received a new lease last summer reflecting the $300 rent increase, she went knocking on her neighbors’ doors and found that many of them received similar increases. She said she is unsure if every tenant in her complex received an increase.
“I was depressed to tell you the truth in the first few days,” De Caires said after receiving notice of the rent increase. “Then Mona [Shadi] came right in and then I said, ‘This is my last line.’”
De Caires, 79, said he was unable to attend many of the mediation sessions because he is getting older and is on dialysis. “It [dialysis] weakens you in a way. I’m able to walk around and drive, but going to meetings and things is harder than what it used to be.”
Shadi had hoped to negotiate with Pine Valley Realty Owner Matthew Gawle at the time, but that did not happen. When weighing whether to challenge the eviction legally, Shadi and De Caires said they were worried going into it.
“I was hoping to win but it was kind of mixed feelings,” De Caires said. “This is the first time I’m going through something like this but I wanted to take it all the way.”
Shadi and De Caires were represented by Joel Feldman, an attorney for Springfield-based law firm Heisler, Feldman, & Ordorica, which represents clients with low and moderate income in cases involving tenants’ rights, employee rights and others.
Feldman felt there was a chance that Shadi and De Caires could win their lawsuit, but it did not come without risk.
“One thing that most tenants don’t understand is that if a landlord wants to increase the rent, they cannot do so unilaterally,” Feldman said.
Feldman said many tenants think they must pay a rent increase or risk eviction. But tenant laws in Massachusetts state that a judge must order an eviction for tenants who don’t sign new leases. Tenants can still pay the current rent and then a legal decision would have to be made.
Shadi and De Caires were in a no-fault eviction case, where a landlord wants to end the tenancy for some reason other than the tenant being behind on rent. In these cases, Feldman explained that tenants must owe the landlord more than the landlord owes the tenant. Shadi said for her, due to interest on her security deposit and maintenance issues at her apartment during her time as a Pine Valley tenant, it was determined that she does not owe anything.
Feldman hopes that this shows that rather than taking eviction cases to court, landlords might be more open to negotiating beforehand.
“Rather than simply try to evict people right away if they get a rent increase, my hope is that landlords consider negotiating beforehand and perhaps a fight in court is not necessary,” Feldman said.