The Somerville Media Fund reports the Somerville City Council voted to begin drafting a home-rule petition asking the state Legislature to let it take steps to rein in rent increases in the city. The Boston City Council last week approved its own home-rule petition for the power to set limits on how fast rents could be increased in older, larger buildings in the city.

Abby Niezgoda at NBC Boston reports city inspectors have condemned the under-renovation building at 43 Fleet St. that partially collapsed last week and that it will have to be torn down. Still up in the air: What happens to the neighboring buildings connected to it. In 2019, a building around the corner on North Street also had to be torn down after partially collapsing.

The Zoning Board of Appeal today rejected a request by the owner of a third-floor condo at 8 Peters St. in South Boston to expand the size of the deck atop his triple decker from 85 to roughly 150 square feet after the two city councilors who live in South Boston said they are unalterably opposed to new or expanded roof decks as menaces to the neighborhood. Read more.

When you're suing your architects because, you say, they forced your home-expansion project to go more than $15 million over budget, you do things like hiring 19 extra lawyers to supplement the 6 you've already retained to go through the more than 2 million pages of documentation the architects produced in response to your "discovery" demands. Read more.

The Massachusetts Appeals Court today upheld the license suspension and fine a state board levied against a Peabody contractor who deposited money meant for an attic refurbishing project into his separate house-flipping business, stopped paying contractors, abandoned the job, filed for bankruptcy and then sued the couple after a judge declared his debt to them "nondischargeable." Read more.

The Boston Fire Department reports 11 people, one cat and one dog were displaced early this morning when the masonry veneer on one wall of 282 Sumner Street mostly collapsed into the narrow alleyway separating the three-family building from its neighbor.

ISD determined a structural engineer will have to come in and extensive repairs be made before the building is habitable again.

When the BPDA gave final approval in 2016 to plans to convert the Charlestown Navy Yard's historic Ropewalk building into apartments, the developer agreed to a condition that tenants with cars would have to provide proof they were leasing parking spaces elsewhere, since the building's grounds had no room for cars. Read more.

Boston can only enact limits on annual rent increases with the approval of the state legislature and the governor, and candidate Maura Healey said today that's not going to happen on her watch.

Mayor Wu today announced she will use $60 million in federal Covid-19 relief money to build or buy affordable houses and condos, bolster down-payment assistance programs and expand a city program that reduces interest rates on mortgages. Read more.