Judge Overturns Condo Regulation

For six months. condo conversion had been the burning issue at city council. It may have been the deciding factor in denying city liberals a fifth seat on the council in last month's elections. And the battle finally reached a climax last Monday night, when the council voted not to allow tenants in the two buildings to purchase their homes as condominiums.

But none of the maneuvering mattered. All the explosions and colored smoke that had surrounded this political war since early summer had no effect at all on a man who mattered, Judge Arthur Sherman of the third district court of Middlesex County.

His decision, handed down last week, overturns a Rent Board regulation prohibiting tenants from purchasing their own homes. Though his ruling will be appealed, it strikes down the section of the law that was for more than a year the only bulwark against condominium conversion in much of the city and remains the only barrier to conversion of perhaps as many as 100 units in "hybrid" (half-condo, half-rental) buildings.

If the ruling is not stayed, tenants who began the process of purchasing their units before August of this year--when new, superceding city regulations further restricting conversion went into effect--will be able to purchase their homes. The 1000-unit figure comes from city councilor and tenant activist David Sullivan, who estimates 40 buildings are affected; others, including landlord attorney William Walsh, estimated yesterday that as few as 100 homes may be involved.

"The city's tenant protection program is being slowly eviscerated," Sullivan, who criticized the effectiveness of lawyers representing the Rent Control Board, said. He added. however, that most of the city's 20,000 tenants will be unaffected by the ruling.

"The developers are trying to make it seem as if the whole thing is being struck down," Sullivan--who may ask the city council to pass new legislation rendering the court decision moot--said yesterday. "Only tenants who want to buy their homes will be affected, though of course there is always the chance landlords will harass renters into buying," he added.

The district court decision is the lowest rung on the legal ladder. If a request for reconsideration is denied by Sherman, the city represented by new lawyers will likely ask for a stay first from district court and then from Superior Court.

"I think there's a fairly good chance of getting it stayed," Sullivan said, adding that new evidence on the original intent of the city council to block tenant purchases would be presented.