Ban Has Not Stopped Condo Sales

The owner of two city apartment buildings on Linnaean St. and Washington Ave. is continuing to sell units converted from apartments to condominiums, despite the City Council's refusal in December to grant him an exemption from Cambridge's strict rent control ordinance, a tenant spokesman said yesterday.

But Sally Ackerman, who represented the buyers of the condominiums at 36-42 Linnaean St. and 4-6 Washington Ave., said in the request for an exemption that the sale of the units is legal under a December ruling by Judge Arthur Sherman of the third district court of Middlesex county.

Turnover

Sherman's ruling overturned a Rent Control Board regulation which prohibited tenants from buying their apartments. Tenants who began renting before the regulation was enacted in 1979 are exempt from the ban.

Sherman's decision struck down this regulation, which has in the past year been the only barrier against much condominium conversion in the city.

Ineffective

City Councilor David L. Sullivan, an out-spoken opponent of condominium conversion, said the judge's decision has not yet been filed, so it is not in effect. In addition, the city will appeal the ruling, he added.

Sullivan said that none of the 17 tenants listed as purchasers in "Banker and Tradesman," a trade publication, lived in the building before the 1979 ban. Several of the residents applied unsuccessfully to the council for an exemption from the ban this year, he added.

The possible conversion of the two buildings was a key issue in the City Council elections in November.