A Superior Court judge has affirmed a 2025 Portland rent board ruling that requires landlord Geoffrey Rice to refund tenants he overcharged and pay $170,500 in fines.

Rice, who owns dozens of properties in Portland, had appealed rent board rulings last year regarding violations at two of his buildings — 59 State St. and 655 Congress St., which resulted in the largest fines ever recommended by the board.

The Trelawny Tenants Union, which represents many of Rice’s tenants, hailed this week’s ruling as precedent-setting for protecting tenants and keeping the city affordable.

“Overnight, this has made it clear that unions have the ability to hold landlords accountable in this city,” said Ethan Strimling, former mayor and founding member of the Trelawny union.

Jeremy Dean, an attorney for Rice, said he and his client are disappointed with the outcome of the appeals and will likely appeal further.

“The tenants unions are all too happy to point to my client as a boogie man,” he said. “Mr. Rice is an 87-year-old man. He has made mistakes and is paying for them a hundred fold.”

As part of the rent board’s ruling, Rice was ordered to roll back the rents he charges in both buildings to what they were in December 2022, and to reimburse tenants for all overcharged rent.

Because he has had multiple violations, Rice’s “substantial non-compliance” with the ordinance meant he could not raise the rent on any tenants. That means if the decision is upheld, Rice will be on the hook for some $500,000 in refunds.

While Dean called it an “outlandish punishment,” Strimling said the ordinance was written that way to establish a deterrent for landlords.

A city spokesperson declined to comment on the court ruling, but tenants’ rights advocates have viewed the cases involving Rice as precedents for the city and its rent control ordinance, which has faced criticism from some officials for being difficult to enforce.

Strimling said the Justice Darcie McElwee’s ruling confirms that the ordinance is “not vague.”

City Councilor Wes Pelletier said he’s often heard from staff or other officials that the ordinance is poorly written or won’t hold up in court.

“This makes it clear that the law is straightforward,” he said. “I hope that the city will finally get the message that this law is not only very popular, but it’s well written and on firm legal standing and it’s time to start enforcing it in earnest.”

Pelletier helped form the Trelawny union, but no longer lives there and he said he is not impacted by the ruling.

In a statement to the Press Herald, Dean said the ordinance is “terribly written and fundamentally unfair,” and said the rent board “is biased in favor of tenants.”

“The rent control ordinance is destroying the rental market in the city,” Dean said. “It is almost impossible to comply with (and) promotes division and rancor between landlords and tenants.”

In response, the Trelawny union said, “Instead of continuing to flail against a law the people of Portland have affirmed four times at the ballot box, and that the Superior Court has, once again, affirmed as sound, it is time for him to start complying with the law.”

This week’s Superior Court decision comes as the city is negotiating a settlement with Rice over separate notices of violation across 14 of his properties. City councilors left an executive session earlier this month without a deal in place, and the city’s legal team is working with Rice’s attorneys on a new settlement proposal.

Dean said Rice has already refunded $250,000 to tenants at 655 Congress St. due to the city’s separate notice of violation for that property.