SCHENECTADY Landlords push for softer rules on inspections, penalties, taxes BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com.
Schenectady’s new landlords association is going straight to the top: The landlords will try Friday to persuade the mayor to loosen regulations on the rental business. Given that Mayor Gary McCarthy says he wants regulations to push bad landlords out of business, it may be a tough sell. But they’ve put together a 14-point proposal, ranging from fewer inspections of apartments to smaller penalties if they break the rules. They also want the city to give them permission to rent out property even if they haven’t paid their taxes. Various landlords will defend each point, based on their research and personal experience. “We are the good landlords,” said spokeswoman Chris Morris, who is a property manager. “Trying to make it a better system all around, because we have a huge rental community.” Most of the landlords’ proposals involve the city’s rental certifi cate ordinance, which requires a new inspection every time a tenant moves out of a unit. Certificates cost only $50, but the cost can add up, Morris said. “If he has 50 units, he has to pay $50 a unit. If some small thing doesn’t get passed, it’s another $25,” she said. “It’s not every few years. People change out after six months.” The landlords also want the inspection to only address safety hazards. Peeling paint on a garage should be considered a cosmetic issue that can be handled as a normal code violation, rather than a violation that stops them from renting the nearby apartments. Currently, they said, peeling paint on a garage will cause them to fail a rental inspection. The tenant can’t move in until someone repaints. “What is the hang-up here?” Morris said. “It’s not a safety issue. You have to put out too much money for reasons that don’t make sense. It’s just money, money, money going out.” Landlords who rent without a certificate generally don’t get caught unless they take a tenant to eviction court. There, they can be charged with a misdemeanor. That should change too, Morris said. “You might be fined and even considered a criminal,” she said. “When the whole reason you’re there is because of a bad tenant.” Such rules, she said, discourage owners from becoming landlords. “There’s so many parts of the rental system that beat up on the landlord,” she said. “We want to make things more landlordfriendly, to encourage the existing landlords to stay.” New Building Inspector Eric Shilling has also proposed not giving certificates to landlords who don’t pay their taxes. Morris said that makes no sense, arguing that it has nothing to do with their ability to provide a safe apartment. ............................>>>>.......................>>>>.......................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01201&AppName=1
SCHENECTADY City weighs fewer rental inspections Landlord group prefers reducing certificate fee BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
The city may inspect rental units far less often in hopes of getting landlords to submit to inspections, Mayor Gary McCarthy said. A new landlords’ group asked the mayor to change the rental certificate law, which calls for an inspection every time a tenant moves out. Some City Council members were hesitant to cut back on inspections, but McCarthy said he now thinks it’s a good idea. Building Inspector Eric Shilling is reviewing the issue and recommends the city inspect each apartment every few years, regardless of how often tenants move out. Inspecting every unit every year is not being considered. “In fact that’s probably too aggressive,” McCarthy said, adding that Shilling doesn’t think he has enough staff to complete thousands of inspections a year. They’re hoping more landlords will agree to inspections if they’re less frequent. “The issue is not those individuals who comply with it. A large percentage of rental property units do not seek the rental certifi cates,” McCarthy said. It appears that the vast majority of landlords ignore the law. In a city with an estimated 10,000 rental units, just 2,168 apartments have been inspected in the last year, according to city records. Any change to the law would require City Council approval. Chris Morris, organizer of the new Schenectady Landlords Influencing Change group, was not excited by McCarthy’s proposal. “It’s an improvement,” she said, but added that she would rather see a reduction in the certifi cate fee. A lower fee, she said, would encourage more landlords to comply. “We were looking for ways to make it more palatable,” she said. As for less-frequent inspections, she said it’s still not fair for good landlords to have to pay for inspections when they keep their apartments up to code. “There’s areas like where I live, where there’s nothing to check on. It seems like a waste of time,” she said. She acknowledged that there’s no way for code enforcers to be sure of that until they do the inspection. But she suggested offering a lower fee to good landlords as a reward for maintaining their apartments. .....................>>>>...........................>>>>.........................>>>>.......................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01102&AppName=1
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