What if City Hall Bossed You Around?
August 10th, 2008
The principle is this: as a citizen you should have a “problem” if City Hall tells you how to run your business / investment / or life. Milford City Hall did this recently with their bylaw regarding rental housing.
The purpose of the bylaw may be reasonable on its face, but it wouldn’t make as much sense if it was affecting you directly. The basics on this new law is:
-
- Landlords must register their multi-family home with city hall. $50 per unit cost.
- A fee is required for each unit, and it is measured and inspected by the city. $15 per unit annually.
- Penalties could be $300 per day if you fail to comply.
The stated purpose of the bylaw is to help in the increased issues with overcrowded rental units and unsanitary conditions. Noble idea, but there are already laws regarding this!
Here is the Boston globe article on the subject. Click here.
I am a landlord of a 14 unit building in Shirley, MA. I am regulated by the State Sanitary Code. It covers the gap that is allowed in a window, the temperature that the building needs to be at different times of year, railings, screens for windows, etc. etc. etc.
See the 35 pages of Sanitary Code here. I need another regulation like a hole in the head!
As a resident, your town hall officials are going to have more work to inspect and document all of the town’s multi-family housing stock. As a landlord, you are opening your doors to a city official to pick apart your investment.
I hope that my tenants keep their place in the same condition I keep my own home, but the reality is that they do not. Most of the rental units are very poorly maintained. We are talking about cleanliness and care of the property.
Early in my experience as a landlord, a tenant who did not want to pay for their rent decided to unleash the Board of Health on me. I spent several inspections where the tenant pulled off the smoke detector and broke a pane of window glass prior to the inspection so that I would fail. I had to have the inspector come over right after I installed the glass for the 3rd time and I put up a new smoke detector while the inspector watched. It was the only way to pass the health code.
Additionally, there are town by-laws that regulate many different areas that naturally regulate the number of people who generally live in a unit. One example is parking. Residential zoning in Milford requires 2 off-street parking spaces per unit.
OK, I admit that after researching the section of town bylaw, Fire Marshall Code, and State Building Code, I have not been able to find a clear defination of how many persons can live in a residence. I expected 2 per bedroom, or 2 per 500 sq ft, or something like this. It is tough to define, and maybe that is why it has not been defined.
Milford residents: your town hall officials are going to have more work to inspect and document all of the town’s multi-family housing stock. As a landlord, you have additional fees each year and now open your doors to inspection. That is bad for every landlord.
Finally, we ask who gains from this new by-law? Renters cannot share costs living with “overcrowded” living situations and will have to figure out how to live with more money going towards rent. Renters will most likely bear the additional fees being put onto landlords shoulders. Citizens will most likely experience more city costs with managment of this program and legal fees to enforce it. Neighbors to these overcrowded residences may be the only winners, even though they could have complained to the Board of Health prior to this by-law.
Bad idea Milford!
Ed Daniels – full time Realtor for The MAhome Team of Re/Max Executive Realty welcomes your comments about this local issue. The Team would be happy to counsel you regarding anything about the local real estate market. Ed is also an owner of a 14 unit apartment building. The MAhome team can be reached at 508-341-7880.
Categories: Milford, Town Hall Info
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 10th, 2008 at 11:08 pm and is filed under Milford, Town Hall Info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
