Is there a double standard here?
The city is considering a certificate of apartment occupancy requirement aimed at absentee landlords. The Herald has a report. It would require inspection and certification that meets housing code or face fines.
But I have to question the fairness of what the Common Council is considering. According to The Herald the proposal:
It would have required all three-family and above properties that were non-owner occupied to register the property and be inspected with the city before renting the units out.If I understand this correctly, it means that owner-occupied buildings are exempt and don't have to meet the same standards of compliance. There is a double standard here and it’s a political one. Landlords hate this requirement.
The idea of requiring a certificate of occupancy has come up before. My memory may be faulty here, but I believe the city had a certificate of occupancy requirement that it rescinded because of landlord complaints about it. Many landlords didn't discover the need for a certificate of occupancy until a tenant stopped paying rent and then used the lack of certificate as leverage in Housing Court.
The latest certificate of occupancy proposal is being used as a hammer to go after bad actors, those absentee landlords who have let property fall into disrepair. If a certificate of occupancy was about ensuring safe housing, then the requirement would exist for any rental unit.
All landlords are required to meet housing code. But the city doesn't have enough housing inspectors to create an effective system to monitor and enforce housing conditions. It only responds to complaints.
Absentee landlord is a term that has a negative connotation attached to it but the vast majority of these property owners, I strongly believe, are hardworking people who pay taxes to the city and try to do the right thing. Most absentee landlords don't want to see the value of their investment decline. A bad tenant can cause mountains of grief and expense.
The city is going to have couple any certificate of occupancy requirement with an education program and reach out to landlords and try to help them from being ensnared in costly legal processes.
Labels: landlords, New Britain Connecticut, tenants
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City of New Britain featured on Homeless Website
(MEMPHIS, TN) – Higher Education and Homelessness are not often linked together but recently the creators of Street-People.com visited the campus of Central Connecticut State University for a story now featured on their website. “Students appreciate the humor of the site”, commented Wayne Andrews who lead the team from Street-People.com,” New Britain with it’s mix of a major college, diverse community, and industry was viewed as a great location to hunt for the homeless and gather stories. Street people often hang around colleges as they know there will be beer cans to collect for change from the rental housing and apartments that service the student population.”
The website features sarcastic stories about homeless people interviewed by the site’s creators and devoted fans. Claiming to uncover that the homeless are often scammers who will say or do anything to part a passerby with their change. A featured street person on the site is “Wheelchair Will” who panhandles from a wheelchair to elicit sympathy but in reality is able bodied and just uses the chair as a prop. “We try to show that there are people who chose to be homeless as a lifestyle and giving them money is not going to change their life or end homelessness, but some street people really need help and the current social programs are not working.” commented Mr. Andrews.
The team visited the city of New Britain, toured the campus and ended their visit with a trip to the popular student drinking spot Elmer’s where they handed out Shotgun Key chains that poke a hole in the bottom of a can of beer for quick consumption and t-shirts that made the wearer appear to be holding a cardboard sign reading “Need Money for Beer”. Several students from Central Connecticut are pictured on the site with their new shirts. “If panhandling works for street people to get money for beer, maybe students should try it.” added Mr. Andrews.
The story is cutting in it’s commentary about New Britain. Noting that the biggest announcement the Mayor of New Britain has made is the opening of a chain restaurant and the statistic that the town features 1 registered sex offender for every 383 residents. The University night life is not left untouched as the story comments that students over indulge at the off campus nightspot so they can return to their dorms for “a night of drunken groping”.
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