Opinion ID: 2185061
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Landlords' Contentions

Text: The argument that enforcement of rent control exceeds the statutory authority of the City Council by not possessing a workable pass-through mechanism has several prongs. First, it is argued that the one-shot rent increase of 12.32% in § 5 of the Regulation does not satisfy this pass-through requirement and that even if it were assumed that this increase is the regulatory mechanism initially implementing the pass-through right, the across-the-board application of the 12.32% rent increase to all landlords, regardless of circumstances, is unfair in that it is inadequate for some of them. In this context, it is further argued that even if the 12.32% rent increase were assumed to satisfy the pass-through requirement and an across-the-board application of a rent increase formula were assumed to be fair, this particular increase would still be inadequate since, according to the research study, the average cost increase to landlords prior to the Regulation was 15.3%, not 12.32%. [9] Secondly, they contend that the provisions in sections 6 and 7 of the Regulation for hardship petitions by landlords do not fulfill the pass-through requirement because these provisions are analogous to, and implementations of, a separate statutory policy regarding hardship exemptions for landlords (§ 45-1623(d)(2)), not the different policy in the Act regarding a cost pass-through right (§ 45-1622(a)). Further, they contend that even if it is assumed that sections 6 and 7 are the Regulation's implementation of the pass-through requirement, sections 6 and 7 nevertheless do not satisfy the requirement because the Commission has already exhibited its inability to handle the determination of the landlords' petitions under sections 6 and 7. Their final contention is that prohibiting the landlords from raising rents without notice and a hearing to the landlords is a violation of due process.