Huard v. Forest Street Housing, Inc., 316 N.E.2d 505 (1974)

Citation: Huard v. Forest Street Housing, Inc., 316 N.E.2d 505 (1974)
Parent Document: Huard v. Forest Street Housing, Inc., 316 N.E.2d 505 (1974)
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts (state)
Effective Date: 1974-09-03
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1976909/huard-v-forest-street-housing-inc/ ↗

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The November, 1970, rent payment of $200 exceeded the “rollback” rent by $25. The Rent Control Act does not permit the local rent control board or administrator to delay its effectiveness. The attempt of the temporary rent administrator to order the “rollback” of rent to be effective on December 1, 1970, and not (in the circumstances involved here) on November 1, 1970, appears to have been without lawful support. His apparent revocation of that order in November, 1970 (see fn. 4 above), makes even less justifiable any purported reliance by the landlord on the temporary administrator’s attempted moratorium. In any event, there seems to have been a $25 overpayment of rent with respect to November, 1970, which the landlord appears to have retained in violation of the Rent Control Act. However, the tenant is not entitled to recover this apparent overpayment because suit was not commenced until April, 1972. An action to recover liquidated damages must be brought no later than one year after the date of the violation. St. 1970, c. 842, § 11 (c). The amount of the overcharge is included within the liquidated damages for which a landlord may be liable. St. 1970, c. 842, § 11 (c). In this respect the language of § 11 (c) was adopted from Federal rent control statutes under which recovery of not only treble damages but also of *210

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