Sayreville's Rent Leveling Board sued over alleged error in calculating rent increase
SAYREVILLE - A longtime landlord is suing the borough council and the borough's rent leveling board (RLB) to reverse their decisions to limit the maximum amount of rent increases to 3%.
Crestview Apartments, on Route 9, filed a two-count lawsuit in April in Middlesex County Superior Court alleging that the RLB "committed error in that it failed to follow" the borough's rent leveling ordinance "by implementing a rent increase percentage of 3% contrary to that required by the ordinance and denying plaintiff's request for an allowable maximum rent increase percentage of 3.3% as required by the terms of the ordinance."
According to the lawsuit, on Feb. 8 the board adopted a resolution that "calculated the maximum allowable limit on rentable increases not to exceed 3% from April 1 through March 21, 2023."
On March 2, Crestview notified the board that it disputed the allowable rent increase and ask for a maximum rent hike. On March 11, the board denied Crestview's appeal.
Four days later Crestview appealed to the borough council, which then voted to keep the RLB decision.
In its lawsuit, Crestview argues that while the borough's formula in calculating the maximum did not support a 5% hike, the formula calculated the increase to be 0.03316485, which the board rounded to 3% even.
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"We feel that the established cap on rental increase should be 3.3%," the court documents say.
Crestview is seeking to have the RLB's and council's decisions reversed because "the clear and unambiguous language in the ordinance requires that the RLB establish a maximum rent increase percent consistent with the formula set forth in the ordinance, which in this case amounts to 3.3%."
Crestview is also arguing that there is nothing in the ordinance that grants RLB the power or authority to round the percentage increase either up or down.
In its court filings, Crestview included a news release from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics saying the Consumer Price Index for the New York Metropolitan Area had increased at an annual rate of 5.1% in January, mostly caused by a 28.5% rises in energy prices. Food prices had risen by 7.5%
Email: sloyer@gannettnj.com
Susan Loyer covers Middlesex County and more for MyCentralJersey.com. To get unlimited access to her work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Sayreville's Rent Leveling Board sued for alleged error in calculating rent increases
