August 15, 2013:
The Law Offices of Joshua N. Garick, P.C. and the Leonard Law Office, LLP today filed a Class Action Complaint against Equity Residential Management, L.L.C. and EQR-Walden Park, LLC, the owner and lessor of the Walden Park property near Porter Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The lawsuit alleges that Equity failed to provide heat and hot water to all of its residents for an extended period of time from April of 2012 and continuing indefinitely into the future.
Tenants at Equity Residential’s Walden Park apartment complex in the Porter Square neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts claim problems with their heat and hot water.
The lawsuit, filed in the Middlesex County Superior Court, alleges that there were several heating and hot water issues that began after Equity Residential purchased Walden Park from its previous owner the Dolben Company. However, after Equity acquired the property, it began shutting off these utilities, which were supposed to be provided to all residents. The Complaint alleges that the conditions were so bad that the Cambridge Board of Health cited Walden Park for violations of the State Sanitary Code and deemed the violations to “materially impair the health, safety or well-being of Walden Park residents.”
The Complaint includes the following counts: (1) violations of G. L. c. 186, § 14 (landlord’s failure to provide heat and hot water); (2) breach of the covenant of quiet enjoyment; (3) breach of the warranty of habitability; (4) unjust enrichment; and (5) violations of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act, G. L. c. 93A. If successful, the class could be entitled to actual and consequential damages or three month’s rent (whichever is greater), plus attorneys’ fees and costs to bring the lawsuit. The Complaint seeks $3,000,000.00 in damages on behalf of all tenants residing at Walden Park since April of 2012.
