This story by Emma Roth-Wells was first published in the Valley News on August 11.
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Lea Henderson expected the rent and utilities for the one-bedroom apartment she’s lived in for the past three years to go up 3% as defined in her annual lease.
So when Ledgeworks, the property management company based in Lebanon, sent her a lease renewal agreement in May that included a 20% rent hike for the unit at 112 South Main St. in downtown White River Junction near the Center for Cartoon Studies, Henderson, 26, was confused.
“Looks like there was a mistake here,” she wrote in a May 20 email to Ledgeworks, the company owned by Mike Davidson that manages his more than 300 residential units in the Upper Valley.
“I was expecting to sign a renewal for $1,287/month not $1,500/month. “
Cedar O’Dowd, 27, who’s lived for three years in a unit in 104 South Main St., the building next door to Henderson’s, is in the same position.
Both O’Dowd’s and Henderson’s leases, obtained by the Valley News, state: “the Base Rent shall be increased by 3% over the previous year’s Base Rent or by a percentage equal to the increase of the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U Boston) for the preceding year, whichever is greater.”
The CPI-U Boston was also 3% from May 2024 to May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But even after Henderson and O’Dowd both pointed out this clause in the lease, Ledgeworks refused to back down.
“The renewal we have sent you is the one we are still presenting to you. Please let us know your intentions,” a Ledgeworks employee wrote to Henderson on May 30.
The two residents reached out to several tenants rights organizations in Vermont and New Hampshire, but none could give a definitive answer as to whether raising the rent more than 3% is legal.
Because there is no binding legal precedent that interprets what the law is in this situation, “unfortunately, there isn’t a straightforward answer,” Rachel Batterson, an attorney at Vermont Legal Aid, said.
Since O’Dowd and Henderson’s leases expired July 31, it is unclear whether Ledgeworks could raise the rent more than 3% after the leases ended.
“I’m just not sure how a judge would interpret the actual situation where the (rent increase) notice was sent during the term of the lease while the 3% limitation was in,” Batterson said.
Ledgeworks put the 3% rent increase clause into the lease because the company tries “to be as predicable as possible for our residents and tenants,” Tim Sidore, Ledgeworks’ chief of operations, said in a Thursday phone interview.
“Typically, we try to keep increases as modest as possible, keeping in line with the cost of living and inflation,” he said. “Sometimes increases are higher than they are in other years.”
This year’s especially high rent increases are due to jumps in the cost of oil, propane, materials and labor, Sidore said.
“Given the dramatic rise of prices and inflation, rents must increase in order to cover costs,” he said.
The increases at the South Street buildings are meant to bring the units to “market rate.”
The units should cost closer to $1,645 a month, Sidore said. That rate would be considered affordable for someone making $61,450 a year, or 80% of the median income in Windsor County, according to the Vermont Housing Finance Authority.
Henderson, who works in the cafe at King Arthur Baking Company, makes about $44,000 a year.
“This apartment is not worth $1,500,” Henderson said in a phone interview last Thursday.
The units that O’Dowd and Henderson have lived in are both about 450 square feet, according to their leases.
“These are not luxury apartments,” a letter some tenants of the buildings wrote to Davidson in June said. “They are homes to low income and working class Vermonters who work in this community and whose labor local businesses benefit from.”
O’Dowd, a coordinator and producer at Junction Arts and Media, makes about $30,000 a year. They’ve lived in the one-bedroom unit with their ex-partner, who studied at The Center for Cartoon Studies when they first moved in. Their combined income is about $45,000 a year, O’Dowd said.
“This is the right apartment for artists in their 20s and it should be a price artists in their 20s can afford,” O’Dowd said in a phone interview last month.
The letter from the tenants also alleges the buildings are not in great condition and the apartments lack some amenities.
“At 112 S. Main St. there is no on-site laundry, and at 104 S. Main St. the laundry is coin-operated and the machines often break-down,” the letter said.
Complaints also included: siding falling off of 112 S. Main St.; fuel issues that led to lapses in heat and oven/stove usage; a shared dumpster often overflows; units do not include air conditioning and are “poorly insulated;” ventilation in the bathrooms is inadequate and ceilings regularly mold, the letter said.
Davidson did not respond to the letter, Henderson said. He also did not respond to the Valley News by deadline.
“We seek to address any reported maintenance issues in a timely manner,” Sidore said in an email to the Valley News.
In recent years, Davidson has renovated the interiors of both buildings, replaced the roof, installed skylights, replaced windows at 104 S. Main, installed a new heating system and fire sprinkler system at 112 S. Main and replaced siding on the front of 112 S. Main, Sidore said.
As a result of the rent increase, Henderson and O’Dowd decided to move out of the South Main Street buildings.
Through Henderson and O’Dowd’s personal connections in the area they found a two-bedroom apartment on Fairview Terrace, about half-a-mile from the South Main Street buildings.
The two signed a lease together for $1,050 a month, including heat and water, but not electricity and internet, Henderson said. It starts in September, O’Dowd said.
“I feel very lucky,” Henderson said.
