Using the tools of local government can reduce the problem of "rent to abandon"
Here's the problem Owners who don't maintain their property are a create a danger to their tenants, neighbors, and whole communities.
Local code enforcement has suffered from some ideas that have prevented effective enforcement
hard to find absentee owners (so go after local owners): gives absentee owners an advantage
hard to deal with people hiding behind corporations, partnerships and trading clubs: (go after resident homeowners instead)
money that goes into fines should go into repairs.
investors are 'good' for the community
If we enforce the code, tenants will become homeless.
The Broken Window strategy for crime control argues that one broken window in a community sets off a chain reaction of lawlessness. MORE SO FOR PROPERTY NEGLECT.
Looking to Cincinnati for models to control bad neigbhbors by controlling absentee landlords? Neighbors
often tell police and city officials that they feel powerless. Columbus
City Council member Zachary M. Klein said he and Councilwoman Michelle
Mills are working on legislation that would hold landlords accountable
for multiple police runs to their properties. Folks are fed up with
problem properties in the neighborhood,” Klein said. He is working with
City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. to expand the city’s definition
of “public nuisance” so officials can go after landlords who rent to
habitually bad tenants. read more here
Hefty fines for code violations
(from the Columbus Dispatch) When
a Pittsburgh judge thought a campus-area landlord didn’t show
enough concern about a slew of code violations at an apartment
building — broken windows, rats, no smoke detectors — he levied a
$730,000 fine. “And
$65 in court costs,” District Judge Gene Ricciardi added. Ricciardi
had no expectations of collecting such a fine, but he said he wanted
to make a point. “The
defendant was not responsive. It did not appear she wanted to
cooperate with the city,” Ricciardi said. “The fine got her
attention.” The
landlord, Sophia Edgos, said she is fixing the problems. “Everything
is almost done,” she said. “I do go step by step with my
inspector.” Read more
