Clifford V. Miller, Inc. v. Rent Control Board of Cambridge

Rent control has as its objectives preventing, within limits of economic fairness, inflationary increases in rent and discouraging depletion of the rental housing stock in a community. See Steinbergh v. Rent Control Bd. of Cambridge, 406 Mass. 147, 149 (1989); Valentine v. Rent Control Bd. of Cambridge, 29 Mass. App. Ct. 60, 62 (1990). It is difficult to see how either purpose is served in this case, which has to do with whether the tenants may keep a dog.

*92The rent control board of Cambridge (the “board”) denied to Clifford V. Miller, Inc. (“Landlord”),2 a certificate of eviction directed…