Deceptive Business Practices

(click on photo collage for large view.)

It appears agencies and corporate owners can't figure out the date of purchase, and who really purchased Rockland Place Apartments, I mean, Spring Gate. Their 'facts' are ever-changing. One paper reads the owner is Cornerstone, another lists Rockland Place Apts. LP, another First Hartford Corp., another states Connolly and Partners, LLP, while another document lists Boston Capital Tax Credit. Residents received certified mail stating the new ownership and management began on November 1, 2006. Mishaps and chaotic construction by 'new owners' began August 2006.

My usual ANNUAL recertification took place November 1, 2006. I was, again, ANNUALLY recertified in mid-March 2007, without a 90-day notice, as my November's recertification document promised I would be. Beginning May 2007, I paid their rent increase, for the increased amount that my 2nd ANNUAL recertification document stated. Sometime in late August, I received another stack of papers with a court date, falsely stating I owed an exhorbitant amount of rent. It wasn't the first time low-income residents have been deceptively overcharged higher than usual rents for this 204-unit subsidized housing complex. The outlined photos show different contract rent amounts for the same sized unit at Rockland Place Apts. dba Spring Gate. Discrepancies always favor these corporate landlords.

Residents are rarely provided legal or sufficient notice for repairs or renovations to be made. Personal property gets damaged by workers. Don't waste your time requesting a reasonable accommodation. While you wait for their answer, you'll get a court date instead. MassHousing continues to grant these corporate partnerships more rent increases while they're in non-compliance of laws and regulations. Residents are required to sign misdated and deceptive documents (1-sided leases, misdated and inaccurate recertifications, etc.). Corporate owners know they can threaten residents with eviction proceedings and, more often than not, residents will go along with the illegal and unfair situation(s). This is not only greedy, but clearly an abuse of power. It certainly isn't fair housing!

I've never found Spring Gate Apts. to be a 'welcoming environment', but I hear cockroaches and bedbugs are trying the place out. For me, Spring Gate Apts. was not a home; it was a noisy construction site with owners who have little regard for residents' quality of life -- But then again, I don't earn at least $25,000. annually, as owners required in a few Apartment Guide listings. Do they discriminate in the enforcement of their policies and procedures? Yes.

I really do think it's time the state of Massachusetts and our federal government stepped in and did a thorough and impartial investigation for fraud, discrimination, and deceptive business practices which has been, and still is, costly in several ways to innocent and vulnerable taxpayers.