Persistent Tenants Win Challenge to Wrongful Mortgage Prepayment

This NHLP Housing Law Bulletin article from June 2004 details a case in which the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a decision invalidating HUD’s approval of a mortgage prepayment in 1986 as contrary to Section 250 of the National Housing Act. Granting summary judgment in favor of the tenants on the illegal prepayment claim, the court also awarded financial restitution under the Administrative Procedure Act to those tenants who were harmed more than 15 years later by the higher rents charged in the absence of the prepaid mortgage’s regulatory restrictions. The court also granted summary judgment in favor of HUD on the tenants’ disability discrimination claim.