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2013 Connecticut Attorney General Reports and Opinions 1 (2013)

handle is hein.sag/sagct0067 and id is 1 raw text is: GEORGE C. JEPSN                                                                   55 Elm Street
ATORNEY GRRA                                                                    P.O. Box 120
Hartlord, CT 06141-0120
Office of The Attorney General
State of Connecticut
April 1, 2013
Senator John McKinney
Senate Minority Leader
Representative Linda Orange
Deputy Speaker of the House
State of Connecticut
General Assembly
State Capitol
Hartford, CT 06106-1591
Dear Senator McKinney and Representative Orange:
This letter responds to your request for a formal legal opinion concerning
the scope of the rental charges that a municipal fair rent commission is
authorized to review. Specifically, you have asked whether a fair rent
commission's authority under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 7-148b to make studies and
investigations, conduct hearings and receive complaints relative to rental charges
on housing accommodations ... in order to control and eliminate excessive rental
charges on such accommodations includes the authority to consider not just rent,
but also fees arising from the landlord-tenant relationship.
You have raised this issue after learning that a municipal fair rent
commission had refused to adjudicate a complaint by mobile home park tenants
concerning a monthly fee for oil spill insurance that the landlord was charging
pursuant to an addendum to the tenants' rental agreements. According to your
letter, the commission's explanation for refusing to address the complaint was its
uncertainty whether its jurisdiction was limited to complaints concerning rent, or
extended to fees associated with rent.
We understand that as a result of this situation, the legislature is currently
considering House Bill 5970, An Act Concerning the Power of Municipal Fair
Rent Commissions, which would define the rental charge that a fair housing
commission could review to include any fee or charge in addition to rent that a
landlord seeks to impose on a tenant. The Housing Committee held a public
hearing on the issue on February 19, 2013, after which you requested this opinion
to clarify the commission's authority under existing law.

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