Monday, April 26, 2010
LANDLORD LICENSING
Considering the interest generated in this topic I've created a new Topic for the Blog. There are already a few comments on this subject under Open Comments. Please use this Topic to post comments on my proposal to require landlords to control the nuisance behavior of their tenants.
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13 comments:
Yes, Mr. Mayor - I don't have an opinion on this directly because I realize that this is more or less a proposal at this point rather than being drafted and on-the-books. However, I would be curious to hear your response to Matthew Major's criticism of your proposal in today's Public Opinion:
http://www.publicopiniononline.com/ci_14958764
Specifically his alternative idea of sponsoring workshops on "creating peaceful apartment building communities," "writing fair and effective leases" and "[streamlining] the eviction process"
First let me explain why I brought this proposal before Council. Nearly 50% of the housing units in the Borough are rentals. In some parts of town those numbers are much higher. Since becoming Mayor I’ve help organize four Neighborhood Watch Programs. The major concern of every one of these Neighborhood Watches was the irresponsible behavior of nearby renters and unaccountable, unresponsive landlords. And by behavior I don’t mean things a “babysitter” would be expected to control. I am referring to behavior that substantially and seriously interferes with the quality of life of Borough residents and leads to the creation of public nuisances. In addition, this behavior is reducing property values of nearby houses and will, over time, degrade the quality of entire neighborhoods. I know this from personal experience. For 25 years I lived in a Medium Density Residential neighborhood with apartments on both corners of my street. My wife and I knew the people, and my kids grew up with the kids, living in those apartments. The landlords were local people who cared for the buildings and who rented to people who cared about the neighborhood. I frequently drive down that street today and my heart sinks. Physically the apartment buildings and grounds are filthy. Neighbors still living on the street tell me about tenants who have no consideration for them or their families and landlords who don’t respond to their complaints. Does adopting an Ordinance similar to that which has been in effect for over 5 years in York and which has proven to be successful in “outing” previously unreachable landlords and reducing urban blight constitute an unnecessary attempt to control people’s behavior? It is unnecessary only if you believe, as the P.O. apparently does, that “sponsoring workshops on creating peaceful apartment building communities” is a real alternative. Residents living near these rental units have tried many times over the years to talk to the landlords of nuisance tenants about, “creating peaceful apartment building communities”. They report that, with one or two exceptions, the landlords could not be located or felt it was not their responsibility to “babysit” their tenants. As for talking to the tenants themselves, perhaps Matthew Major would volunteer to explain to the six foot three, 250 pound gentleman that he would appreciate it if he didn’t allow his pit bull to poop in his neighbor’s yard. This doesn’t mean that the Borough couldn’t help landlords learn how to write “fair and effective leases”. The Borough could also lend its weight to an effort to streamline the eviction process. At last night’s Borough Council meeting the Borough Manager and I agreed to meet with all interested landlords and come up with a program, rather than an ordinance, that will address this problem by targeting not only unaccountable landlords but also irresponsible tenants. I look forward to seeing what we can do and will work hard to make this effort successful. But as I said last night, the landlords at the meeting were not the landlords creating the problems the Borough needs to address. If those landlords continue to ignore their responsibilities to their neighbors and their community I will continue to push for an ordinance that requires them to do so.
Greetings, Mr. Mayor,
I applaud your efforts, to find a workable method to improve the communities, and to work toward establishing more respobnsible landlords and tenants, in Chambersburg. THisis not only apartment buildings, as, within our home, we have more than house, that has been rented to individuals or groups, that fits your description. Noise, rubbish, and total neglect of the property is around us every day. i have asked for,a dn received assistance from the Borough's officers, in litter and property issues, and have had assistance from the police, with noise, and other problems. they have all been helpful, but the problem is still there. All we want is to live in a clean, quiet, respectable community. your proposal, and the current ordinances that are inplace for these problems need to have some wserious teeth in them, and hopefully we can see some responsibility return to places that is belongs.....
thanks for your efforts
Good day,
I must apologize for my previous entry, as there was some issue with the web, and my message went before I was able to edit it, and an error icon popped up. As a result, the message is almost impossible to understand. My Bad...
Here is the message as it was supposed to look, if it can be re-entered.
Greetings, Mr. Mayor,
I applaud your efforts, to find a workable method to improve the communities, and to work toward establishing more responsible landlords and tenants, in Chambersburg. This is not only apartment buildings, as, within the vicinity of our home, we have more than one house, that has been rented to individuals or groups, that fits your description. Noise, rubbish, and total neglect of the property is around us every day. I have asked for, and received assistance from the Borough's officers, in litter and property issues, and have also had assistance from the police, with noise, and other problems. They have all been very helpful, but the problem is still there. All we want is to live in a clean, quiet, respectable community. Your proposal, and the current ordinances that are already in place for these problems need to have some serious teeth in them, as the noise ordinance is good, but not enforced as tough as it should be. Hopefully we can see some responsibility return to the persons where it belongs.....
thanks for your efforts!!!
Mr. Mayor, I have several comments and several concerns. First, let me say that I am generally in favor of "landlord licensing", but not exactly as you have proposed.
Being a landlord requires somewhat of a "higher duty" when it comes to responsible tenant selection. Having spent 18 years of my adult lift in the rental business, much of that time in Chambersburg, it all comes down to proper tenant selection in the first place. I notice that several landlords have published tenant selection criteria, and at least one I found on a local company's website ( http://www.liveinchambersburg.com/forms_10_2411249650.doc ). These should be used as a model for all landlords, in my opinion. With proper tenant selection in the first place, the peacefulness of the neighbors in the building, and the rest of the neighborhood, can be nearly assured.
That said, I think that landlord licensing should be voluntary. Why? Well, that comment is made primarily out of self-interest. Landlords who do a good job at tenant selection, and keeping after their tenants to be responsible neighbors, have a competitive edge, in my opinion. Legislating a level playing field, by requiring all landlords to police their tenants removes the competitive edge that landlords who already do this have. It's one of the things that differentiates a "good landlord" from a "bad landlord", the way I see things. Why not, instead, develop a ratings system, based on police calls, complaints, etc., somewhat like we have for restaurants? I'd like that very much. I'm sure I'd be an "A". Increased enforcement action and additional scrutiny from code officials would be the reward for those with low scores.
IF... landlord licensing becomes a reality, I wish it came with some reward also. Perhaps a longer frequency between required rental inspections? For those of us that already voluntarily do a fine job, sail through our annual rental inspections, and don't have regular police visits to our buildings, I'm worried that this licensing will be one more "tax" with no particular benefit to us or our private homeowner neighbors.
Having said that, landlord licensing will be of little benefit if is is simply a registration process. I propose that if this licensing becomes reality, that candidate licensees be required to attend a "landlord class" and take written testing before such a license is granted. To simply dispense a license, which presumably can be revoked if certain benchmarks are not made, does little. Classes and testing assures that the landlord has the appropriate education to be effective at meeting these benchmarks in the first place.
In conclusion, I should note that I find it very interesting that some of the most vocal opponents of landlord licensing are those who seem to do the poorest jobs as landlords with respect to holding their tenants responsible to their community's standards.
MD made some great points and I will bring them up at our meeting on May 26th. I especially like the tenant selection criteria that Sunnyhill Properties uses. But, as I've said all along, the issue isn't responsible landlords like Tannie Nitterhouse. It is the irresponsible, many times absentee landlord, who is the problem. So I hope at our meeting we can figure out ways to target these landlords and their problem tenants.
Mr. Mayor, thank you for a productive meeting last night. Unfortunately, I didn't get the mail invitation, but I did find out about it through the grapevine, and was able to attend.
What I took away was that you're willing to instruct the police to be more vigilant in issuing citations to tenants. I also took away that you're going to push the IT people to merge the databases of landlords with the police departments system, so that we can also be notified of police calls to our properties. THIS IS FANTASTIC! I am not an absentee landlord, by any means, but often the only way I have to know if something's amiss is if someone tells me. Getting notification from the police is a fantastic way for me to know who I have to buckle down on, and I'm perfectly willing to do that.
Getting stuck with utility bills, however, is a puzzler to me. I suppose that must happen to a lot of landlords, but I guess I'm pretty lucky. I try, as much as I have the ability, to check out my prospective tenants ahead of time. I think that goes a long way toward getting people who don't make it a habit of being behind on their bills. Sure, every tenant can get in a short term bind here and there, but I have my fingers crossed that I haven't gotten stuck with any real Jim-Dandy's.
Please: 1)Instruct the police to be a less tolerant of noise and unruly conduct when they're called out for such (ie: be a little quicker to issue citations), and 2)Keep on the IT people to develop the capability for us landlords to be notified if the police had to be called out at one of our properties. Even if the officer only asked the people to 'simmer down', I'd like to know if they were called out. Nipping the problem in the bud, as the TV character Barny Fife was fond of saying, is crucial toward "training" the tenant on proper conduct and the expectations of the community.
I'm willing to help you, but you've got to help me with these things.
as a landlord,we get nailed enough with tenants bs and most of them know the system. We do screen our potential tenants, very thorough. just as you know when someone applies for a job, they are screened but not all of them turn out to be good employees. this is the same with renting.the law is on their side.landlord should get information and share what we all know as far as places to get up to date info on potential tenants,district majestrant sharing right to know info,any other ideas for screening tenants without having to spend your retirement and still get a bad one.we currently charge an application fee, this does not again keep the bad ones away.our application is 6 pages long and this too does not always keep the bad ones away.we screen very well but people can/do put on an act. we all know this, even our friends and co workers we see everyday, you dont know who they really are behind closed doors.so, we need to come together landlords and the town of chambersburg and share what info we have or get a lawyer to come in and offer their time free of charge or accept donations to share info.some lawyers will do this, they will get publicity and customers from this. its advertising.
Thanks for sharing this link, but unfortunately it seems to be offline... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please answer to my post if you do!
I would appreciate if a staff member here at chambersburgmayor.blogspot.com could post it.
Thanks,
James
Thanks for sharing the link, but unfortunately it seems to be offline... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please reply to my post if you do!
I would appreciate if a staff member here at chambersburgmayor.blogspot.com could post it.
Thanks,
Mark
Greetings,
Thanks for sharing this link - but unfortunately it seems to be down? Does anybody here at chambersburgmayor.blogspot.com have a mirror or another source?
Cheers,
Charlie
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why hold landlords responsible for here tenants behavior they are adults lanflords ae not suppose to be there baby sitters. if they rent a property its like there property so hey should be responsible for there behavior. and why don't you make it easier for landlords to evict problem tenants they have more rights than the landlords do.
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