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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.
However, city officials have run into repeated problems with landlords who rent out entire buildings but do not buy insurance, maintain the property or pay taxes. In recent years, the city has seen several apartment buildings burn down without fire insurance, leaving the city to pay for demolition and cleanup.
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This article in the Daily Gazette (April 18, 2012) is describing some of the ways the City of Schenectady is trying to clean up the neighborhoods. Quality of Life issues are very important for a vibrant city.
City getting arrest warrants for code scofflaws
Police say they’ve charged 10 so farBY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
SCHENECTADY – Those who abandon their properties and don’t show up in court are now getting arrested.
Mayor Gary McCarthy has ordered police to begin arresting those who refused to show up in court this month to answer summons for alleged code violations.
“We just have to get the message out there that we cannot have people who thumb their nose at the system and have callous disregard for community standards,” McCarthy said.
The Law Department began an aggressive effort to clean up the city by hauling the owners of what they called the city’s 100 worst buildings into court this month. About 50 percent didn’t show up.
For the most part, those owners have abandoned their buildings, but some have continued to rent them out, despite doing no work to maintain the property.
“That’s more frustrating, where people are collecting rent and not putting any money back into it,” McCarthy said.
After so few came to court, judges signed dozens of arrest warrants. McCarthy told police to give those warrants priority, and in less than a week, police spokesman Sgt. Mark McCracken said, offi cers have arrested about 10 of the owners.
“We’re starting to put special emphasis on the code violation warrants,” McCracken said. “It’s almost a daily occurrence.”
McCarthy is hoping the pressure forces owners to take action.
“I want them out of the business,” he said, referring to owners who buy rental property as an investment but don’t maintain the buildings.
As for those who have simply abandoned their property and left it vacant, he wants them to sell or make repairs.
Blighted buildings bring down the value of surrounding properties, he said, but he’s also concerned that they encourage crime.
Prostitutes and drug dealers have set up shop inside some houses, and others have become enticing prey to thieves looking to steal copper pipes. “These properties tend to create an atmosphere for criminal behavior,” McCarthy said. “People have to take code enforcement seriously.”
The arrests are the latest in a series of housing-focused changes under McCarthy’s administration.
Code enforcers are also doing publicized neighborhood sweeps for violations. While they leave courtesy notices for residents with minor problems, they are also boarding up houses and fixing hazardous conditions. They hammered down loose sheet metal on a roof earlier this month, among other work.
The Law Department is reviewing 750 abandoned properties with long-delinquent tax bills and may foreclose on hundreds of them this year. The final list will be available in three weeks.
The department is also taking hundreds of owners to court on accusations they have abandoned their properties. Owners have been found as far away as Florida and Minnesota.
McCarthy is also trying to entice new owners to Schenectady.
The city has partnered with Key-Bank, which is offering a special mortgage program through Key To The City.
McCarthy has also directed key city workers — including the police and fire chiefs — to attend monthly city-wide open houses so they can answer prospective buyers’ questions about life in the city. So far, Realtors have reported selling five or more houses during each open house, and about 40 houses overall in the last three months.Reach Gazette reporter
Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com.
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
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.
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.
This articled appeared in a local publication on Saturday, November 7, 2009. Clearly there is nonsense throughout not only by the landlord, but by the current Commissioner of Public Safety, Wayne Bennet.
SCHENECTADY
Landlord says drug raids besmirch Hill’s image; police defend practice
Some excerpts from the article include…
… Police raids may stop drug dealers, but they hurt Hamilton Hill more than they help, according to one absentee landlord.
… This week, Devika Persaud asked police to stop raiding houses on the Hill, saying the raids are a bad PR move that scare away good tenants.
… A new city law requires absentee landlords to have a local contact person, but doesn’t say that they must be used for anything other than emergency contacts with the city.
The landlord, Devika Persuad lives in New York City and is obviously not available in case of emergency. Which is what the City’s Landlord Registry was all about. To name someone local as a property owner contact in case of emergency. Now I’m not saying that she should live in or close to Schenectady, but she’s clearly out of line in telling the city what they should or shouldn’t do.
Think about it, if the cops are doing their jobs right, meaning they are going to raid drug houses and arrest the scumbags who deal or use drugs, why would they tell the landlord? Is she living on the same planet as the rest of us?
And I don’t go along with what the cops say being that absentee landlords are a major part of the problem. You can certainly own a house here and rent it to reasonable tenants. I would say that its the NOT-FOR-PROFITS who bring the scum to the city, as well as all the LAWS put in place to prevent discrimination.
Bennett states that “every absentee landlord should hire a local property manager who would make sure no one deals drugs in the building or its vicinity.”
Oh yeah Wayne? And how do you propose that a local property manager do that?
He is quoted further with, “Clearly the local representative is the key to the whole thing. That person can check on the street if [the prospective tenant] has a reputation. She can ask where the tenant is living now and the representative can go there and talk to the landlord, talk to the neighbors. That may save them a lot of trouble.”
Is he nuts? After a hundred years “leading” the New York State Police he tells these ignorant people that all they have to do is talk to their friends? He is nuts.
The article degrades further into a he said, she said scenario that accomplishes nothing. But the most disarming statement is from Devika Persaud. “How are we supposed to bring middle-class people back into Hamilton Hill if they’re going to continue to do these things?” Meaning the raids.
The only way Hamilton Hill in Schenectady is going to be brought back to a middle class neighborhood is for reasonably paid jobs to be brought to Schenectady, and to raze the entire neighborhood and build new homes.
So it goes to show that not only is the Guyanese landowners living in a dream world, the cops and the commissioner is too.
Pat Zollinger
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
