The Settlement Class is defined by “Tenancy” which refers to a lease of a particular residential unit at one of the Properties owned and/or managed by HHDC (“Premises”) occupied by one or more adult persons who were authorized by written lease agreement to reside in a residential unit at one of the Premises during the Settlement Class Periods and did so reside (“Tenant”).
A tenant can only claim a single Tenancy regardless of how many different units within the same Property or at any Property, at which said tenant resided.
The “Settlement Class” consists of three Subclasses defined as follows:
Subclass A consists of tenants at “Properties A” (listed here) who satisfy all of the following criteria:
- Entered into a new rental agreement or lease renewal between May 1, 2014 and January 16, 2020;
- Provided a security deposit which was held for more than 6 months; and
- Were not paid interest on the deposit annually, within 30 days after the end of each 12-month rental period, at least once.
Subclass B consists of tenants at “Properties B” (listed here) who satisfy the following criteria:
- Entered into a new rental agreement on or after June 1, 2015 through February 16, 2021;
- Provided a security deposit;
- Were not provided with a disclosure in their lease of the name and address of the financial institution where their security deposit was being held.
Subclass C consists of tenants at “Properties C” (listed here) who satisfy the following criteria:
- Entered into a new rental agreement or lease renewal on or after June 1, 2015 through February 16, 2021 and
- At least once were not provided both RLTO summary documents at the beginning or at renewal of the lease.
Can a tenant qualify to receive two Settlement payments? A tenant may qualify to receive two Settlement payments if, and only if, the tenant is a member of Subclass C and is also a member of at least one other subclass. The tenant would receive one payment as a member of Subclass C and another payment as a member of Subclass A or B. Tenants may not qualify to receive more than two payments even if the tenant is a member of all three subclasses.
What about Co-tenants? Where more than one tenant resided in the same unit during the same rental period, they are considered “Co-tenants.” Co-tenants are treated as one Tenancy for purposes of this Settlement Agreement and will share equally in the Tenancy’s Settlement share, unless they agree to a different distribution by submitting a written, notarized request as explained here.
Members of the Settlement Class who were not tenants at any HHDC Property as of the date of preliminary approval, February 16, 2021, are referred to as “Former Tenants”. All other persons for whom the Defendants have no record of lawful tenancy during the Settlement Class Periods were required to submit a Claim Form. The deadline has now expired to submit claims except for newly-identified Class Members.