Press Release  AG’s Office Sues The Owner And Operator Of A Braintree Apartment Complex For Denying Or Delaying Reasonable Accommodations For Tenants With Disabilities

BRAINTREE — The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit against GM Skyline Drive Apartments LLC (“GM Skyline”) for unfairly denying or delaying reasonable accommodations for tenants with disabilities and refusing to work with tenants who receive housing subsidies through a Department of Mental Health (DMH) program. GM Skyline is a New Jersey-based property management company that owns and operates Skyline Drive Apartments in Braintree. 

The AGO alleges that over the last several years, GM Skyline has routinely failed to provide reasonable accommodations to tenants with disabilities, due in large part to the company’s lack of effective policies and procedures to ensure that requests for reasonable accommodations are timely processed in compliance with our laws. According to the AGO’s complaint, GM Skyline does not consistently document accommodation requests or decisions, nor does it adequately supervise how staff handle these requests. As a result, tenants are allegedly regularly forced to repeat requests for accommodations – often several times – before GM Skyline begins to consider their requests. 

When GM Skyline does process requests for accommodations, the AGO alleges that the company often unreasonably delays granting and implementing them. Tenants are frequently left waiting for a year or longer without any justification. According to the AGO’s complaint, GM Skyline:  

• Took more than one year to assign an accessible parking spot, install a wheelchair ramp, and provide an automatic door opener for a tenant with a mobility impairment;  
• Took nearly two years to remove the carpet from the apartment of a tenant with severe environmental allergies; 
• Took more than two years to give a tenant with a mobility impairment a key to the back door of her building so that she would not have to walk a long distance from her parking spot; 
• Took more than one year to install an accessible shower for a tenant with a mobility impairment; and 
• Refused to provide guest parking passes to two tenants who receive support from caretakers unless the parking passes were renewed and picked up in person on a weekly basis. 

Additionally, the AGO alleges that GM Skyline has taken discriminatory and retaliatory action against tenants who participate in the DMH’s Rental Subsidy Program (DMH-RSP). The DMH-RSP is a rental subsidy program that assists low-income tenants who receive DMH services due to a disability. In connection with the program and in order to receive subsidy payments, GM Skyline is required to maintain the property consistent with the State Sanitary Code.  

The AGO alleges that the Braintree Housing Authority – an administering authority of the DMH-RSP program – began withholding subsidy payments from GM Skyline in 2022 because GM Skyline had failed to maintain the property in compliance with the State Sanitary Code. According to the complaint, GM Skyline responded by modifying a participating tenant’s lease from a one-year term to a month-to-month term and blocking new DMH-RSP participants from moving into a unit. 

The AGO alleges that GM Skyline’s actions violate the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act and the Massachusetts Antidiscrimination Law. In filing the lawsuit, the AGO asks the Court to order GM Skyline to pay restitution to the impacted tenants and prevent the company from engaging in practices that violate the law. 

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorneys General Ann E. Lynch, David Ureña, and Julia S. Canney, Paralegal Chiara McNally, and Intake Coordinator Macey Owen of the AGO’s Civil Rights Division.  

Individuals who believe their rights have been violated should file a civil rights complaint with the AGO online, or by calling (617) 963-2917. 

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