Portland landlord agrees to $3.6 million rent-control settlement

Geoffrey Rice and the Trelawny Tenants Union agreed to a $3.6 million settlement over alleged violations of Portland’s rent-control ordinance. The terms include rolling back rents at Rice’s Portland properties to compliant levels from December 2022 and reimbursing tenants for charges above what the ordinance allowed.

The settlement also includes a $250,000 payment to the city, according to WGME. The union said roughly 1,000 people could receive checks tied to 300 units and six years of rent charges.

That estimate comes from union secretary Giselle Taylor, who described violations ranging from relatively minor discrepancies to individual-unit charges hundreds of dollars above the permitted amount. The check estimate is prospective; the sources do not report how many tenants have received payments.

WMTW reported that the agreement covers more than 300 units across Rice’s 19 residential properties in Portland. The union said the settlement’s reimbursement terms apply to past and present tenants, while the rent rollback resets the charges to the compliant level.

The sources describe the agreement’s broad coverage but do not provide a breakdown of the settlement amount among tenant reimbursements, the city payment, or other costs. The two reports emphasize different elements of the deal.

WGME details the $250,000 city payment and Taylor’s estimate of tenant checks; WMTW describes the negotiation process and the security arrangement for funding the settlement. WMTW reported that the parties reached agreement Sunday after four months of negotiations, including a 20-hour session that stretched across two days.

Under the arrangement described by WMTW, the union will hold a mortgage on 10 of Rice’s properties until the escrow account is fully funded. That mechanism ties the union’s security to the settlement funding, although the report does not specify when the account will be fully funded.

WGME separately reported that the union will drop its active complaints against Rice under the agreement. The reports frame the underlying conduct as alleged or reported rent-control violations, while the settlement sets out financial and rent-related terms. WMTW said Rice was accused of illegally raising rent; the coverage does not describe a court finding on the allegations.

The settlement’s immediate stakes are tenant reimbursements, rent levels at Rice’s properties, the city payment and the escrow security arrangement.