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Every so often the Schenectady Police Department puts out the listing of sex offenders. This one is from last April. Sorry I didn’t get it up here sooner.
I don’t know what the laws are regarding renting to sex offenders, but you as the landlord should certainly know that’s who you’re renting to. However you may not know it until its too late.
If you have a question on your application asking if the potential tenant has been convicted, and the potential tenant doesn’t tell you, then you would have a case for eviction.
Anyway, here’s Schenectady’s List as of last April: sex offenders list April 2010
Published locally on February 3, 2010 …
The state Legislature most likely will not let Schenectady shift some taxes from homeowners to landlords, state Sen. Hugh Farley and Assemblyman James Tedisco said Tuesday.
And the Legislature might not let the city pass off some of its tax collection responsibilities, either, Farley said.
Mayor Brian U. Stratton said Monday that he hoped to save the city $4 million by getting state permission to stop paying delinquent taxes to the county and school district when property owners don’t pay.
Farley said that if state legislators view the tax collection change as the equivalent of a tax hike at the county and school level, it won’t be approved.
As for the homeownerlandlord tax shift, he said that would be the same as raising taxes. He called it “the tax increase on landlords” and predicted that such an idea would never pass.
For anyone who doesn’t know this, Hugh Farley is our State Senate representative and James Tedisco (along with George Amedore) is our State Assembly representative. I’ll find their email addresses to post here as soon as possible.
SCHENECTADY
Council leader pushes dual tax-rate plan
The city will need state approval to create a new tax system that would charge landlords more than owner-occupants.
… “Our costs are driven by absentee landlords,” McCarthy said.
January 20th, 2010
This is only a clip of the article. We will get more information on it and what their process is.
(The following are tips suggested by landlord contributors to MrLandlord.com)
1) Take lots of pictures of your property with a digital camera. Pictures are free unless you print them. Only print the ones you actually use or need.
2) Verify everything, no matter how nice they seem.
3) Don’t ever allow a tenant to move in before the unit has been cleaned – even if the new tenant offers to clean it
4) Never leave utilities in your name unless you have to.
5) On lease signing day, consider giving your tenants 12 months worth of stamped and addressed envelopes for rent payment. According to one successful landlord, all their tenants say how helpful this was for them–just like a mortgage company (except mine have a stamp).
6) In case residents lose your self addressed envelopes, slap an Address label on the inside of a wall mounted kitchen cabinet. The address being where you want your rent mailed to. This is usually best placed in the cabinet closest to the Land line phone plug.
7) If the interior paint color of the rental, or one of the rooms, is not your normally used basic white, tape a paint chip, complete with paint name and barcode, on the inside of the light switch cover. Now when you need to order more paint that’s a specialty color, you can remember what it is!
1. Always start evictions immediately. If tenants need extra time, the court will give it to them.
2. You don’t make a profit with evictions. You only cut your losses.
3. You’ve already supplied the “needy” tenant with free housing. You have done your charity work, give someone else a chance.
4. If the tenant doesn’t have a friend or relative to help him out, doesn’t that say a lot about the tenant’s character?
5. If someone asks you how you could put someone on the street, ask them to pay the rent and you won’t evict them.
6. The tenant has kept possession of your house and is stealing from you. He has stolen your home, your utilities and your services. The tenant is a thief. Do stores let your tenant go in and take from them?
7. Letting a tenant stay in your house who is not paying rent is like giving your tenant your charge card and telling him, “Feel free to spend. I like loaning out money interest free without knowing I’ll be paid back”.
8. How would you feel if you worked all week and your employer said I don’t have a paycheck for you. Guess what your tenant has just told you that! Do you work for nothing?
9. If you want to maintain your apartment and let the occupants live there rent free, you should decide who the occupants will be, not your tenant. There are lots of people you may find more deserving.
10. Your tenant is taking money, time and energy from you, which you could use to provide for your family’s needs. Picture yourself trying to tell your child that you could not buy him or her an item because you had to pay a stranger’s rent so the stranger could buy gifts for his or her child.
From Mr. LandLord December 1992
This article appeared in the Daily Gazette on November 11, 2009.
Landlords offered free help
to trim city code problemsBY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA
Gazette ReporterExcerpts from the article include …
… The pilot program, called Guidance Responsible Owners Want, or GROW, aims to help owners become better property managers and to help the city reduce the incidence of problem landlords violating housing codes. …
… Stratton said Sunrise approached the city to offer the pilot program. He said the city at this time does not expect to contract with Sunrise once the program concludes in a year. …
… “Real estate is Schenectady’s biggest business, representing a $3.4 billion market,” Holland said. “The city has the most to lose with property owners who go into foreclosure. The city loses taxes and the quality of life suffers. The goal is to keep new investment coming into the city.” …
Please note that its not offered to the most common Schenectady Landlord, the one who may have two or three two-family homes. We will look into this a bit more and try to find out what its all about.
Being a Landlord is pretty much standard, at least in Schenectady. There are rules and laws you must adhere to and you must pay taxes and keep up the rental units. This blog tries to present all of the rules and give you suggestions on what to do.
National Grid (formerly Niagara Mohawk) has a plan where if the power is shut off it automatically goes into your (the Landlord) name.
Tenants have and will do this if they think they’re going to move out on you so don’t allow this to happen.
Be sure to check on your rental premises regularly. You must give a tenant advance notice if you are checking on the unit, but you don’t have to if you are checking on common areas like the basement. You or your manager would be able to tell if the power was shut off from there.
- Use an application for prospective tenants.
- Decide who is best financially qualified for the amount of rent charged.
- Get your rental certificate or Section 8 inspection.
- Use a Lease written in plain English.
- Get a Last Month’s Rent plus Security Deposit.
- Set occupancy according to HUD’s recommendation, 2 people per bedroom plus one.
- Set up rules and attach to the Lease as an addendum.
On the City of Schenectady’s website there is important information regarding Landlords.
Fair Housing Impediments Analysis
You will find this report on the City of Schenectady’s Official Website on this page:
Fair Housing Web Page Archive
Are they all just liars? And here I’m talking about evictees and SCAP. I’d swear THEY were in cahoots to claim fraud against a landlord in our Court System.
Case in point, my own. The tenants I was evicting were not yet on welfare. I don’t accept welfare and they were not paying the rent. We go to court and the woman holds up the “Tenants Rights Manual” and says, “If I can prove that the apartment wasn’t habitable then I don’t have to pay the rent.”
Here I have a lease with them, I have signatures, we went through the rental application process, I know where they work and the flat was fully inspected and granted a rental certificate.
What they did was pull up the carpeting and photographed the old pad below it, they pushed up the ceiling tiles in the suspended ceiling and photographed the space in between. They crouched to photograph the wall behind and below the clawfoot tub (which couldn’t be fixed because you couldn’t get to it so it was old) and they killed the ants that came to their trash that they were leaving outside the back door, and photographed those.
And where do I think they got those ideas? SCAP.
Now my neighbor rented her property to a Section 8 person and had to evict her asap because she was wrecking the place. She gave me a few highlights of her case (she’s being accused of fraudulently getting utility payment) and she was shocked that she was being accused of all this stuff that she didn’t do. And who was accusing her? The tenant and SCAP! She’s going to have future court issues with Section 8 that she’ll need to take time off from work to clear herself, so be sure you want to go through that before you accept it.
Updates to follow:
SCAP’s website showing Community Services. Trust me, they will work to resolve Landlord/Tenant issues FOR THE TENANT. As I said, they are NOT your friend, they are NOT impartial.
And SCAP’s Flier… http://www.scapny.org/HIPbrochure.pdf
