Landlord and tenant - Chapter 667 - Disqualification.

Byline: Mass. Lawyers Weekly Staff

Where a Superior Court judge upheld a decision of the Department of Housing and Community Development affirming a decision of the Marblehead Housing Authority which concluded that a plaintiff was disqualified from participation in the elderly and handicapped low-income housing program, a remand is necessary despite the plaintiff's failure to pay her electricity bill for nine years at her last apartment.

" On appeal, [plaintiff Kelly] Deal argues that DHCD erred as a matter of law in its decision that her failure to pay her electricity bill for nine years at her last apartment was a disqualifying 'material breach of the terms of [her] prior tenancy.'

"The relevant regulation, in pertinent part, disqualifies an applicant who has 'a history of failure to meet material lease terms or the equivalent at one or more prior residences.' Here, however, DHCD made no finding of fact that there was any lease governing Deal's prior tenancy, let alone a 'material lease term' requiring her to pay for electricity. Nor did DHCD make any factual finding of a history of failure to meet 'the equivalent' of a material lease term. 'An administrative agency must make findings on each factual issue essential to its decision.' Because DHCD did not find the existence of either of the facts that would trigger the regulation, DHCD erred as a matter of law in ruling that the regulation disqualified Deal.

"DHCD's decision did state that '[t]he failure to pay her electric bill was ... a material breach of the terms of Ms. Deal's prior tenancy.'...