http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20130212/NEWS02/702129873
Response has been strong from Springfield landlords who are interested in forming an association to better tackle mutual problems.
Landlord Wendi Germain said that she had a response of more than 20 area landlords who were interested in working on joint issues. Germain, on behalf of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce, helped organize a meeting last fall for landlords, with the goal of helping rid Springfield of drug dealers.
Germain, the executive director of the Springfield Restorative Justice Center, said she is relative new to being a landlord, having purchased an apartment building about three years ago.
“A lot of people have done it a lot and I want to pick their brains,” said Germain.
Germain said that as an association the landlords would have a better influence on legislation currently pending in Montpelier. The proposed legislation that caught Germain’s eye would allow landlords to attach a person’s pay — something like placing a lien on their wages — to get unpaid rent.
“If we had a larger voice, we would have a larger impact,” said Germain.
Another Springfield landlord, Bob Perusse of Westminster, said that he’s owned rental housing in Springfield for about 10 years. Perusse said he wanted to help other landlords avoid some of the obvious pitfalls in the business.
Perusse said he recently helped a Bellows Falls woman who was having a difficult time evicting a problem tenant. Perusse said he understands the eviction process and knows how to navigate it, and said he wanted to lend his expertise to other landlords who don’t know all the ins and outs of the process.
“With a little common sense, it’s easy to work,” said Perusse, who said he’s never done a credit check on his tenants, since the bulk of the people who rent his apartments have bad credit.
He said he does pay attention to past references and past tenancies, and not just the immediate one, but earlier ones.
Perusse said he hasn’t had any problems at his Springfield apartment house with people using or selling drugs — a problem which was original impetus for the landlords’ meeting.
“Drug problems are in all the towns,” said Perusse.
David Yesman, a Springfield landlord, and member of the Springfield Select Board, said he felt landlords would be helped by an association.
“I don’t think we, as landlords, have any say right now,” said Yesman, articulating a common complaint that Vermont law overwhelmingly favors tenants. “The state has a big book for renters, but there’s not a big book for landlords on how to protect them from troublesome renters.”
Yesman said people forget that landlords need to make money to cover their operating costs, something that is often lost, he said, in any landlord-tenant discussion. Yesman said he regularly keeps an apartment unrented rather than rent it to a less-than-ideal tenant.
Yesman agreed that some apartments in Springfield “are pretty tough,” but he said he wouldn’t rent out an apartment he wouldn’t feel comfortable living in.
Perusse said he wanted to share his knowledge. “I saw a lot of need for people to get together and to solve some of the issues landlords have to face,” he said.
Interest strong in association for Springfield area landlords
By Susan Smallheer
Staff Writer | February 12,2013
Rutland Herald
SPRINGFIELD –
Rewrite your Lease agreements to include that any unlawful conduct will result in immediate termination of the lease and tenants immediate dismissal of the property.
ReplyDeleteLocal Sheriff's can oversea the delivery of the dismissal paperwork. Or, you can just resign yourself to the fact that Springfield will continue it's demise into drugs and crime unless they start thinking in the present and not in it's past glory days.
please expand.
DeleteCan't get anybody to help when the tennant won't pay or leave.
What do you do when they change the locks and camp out, while you are paying costs ??? Only know of going to Woodstock with eviciton paperwork. It takes a while and the loss of basic income to cover costs hurts my team and family.. and prohibits repair
What am I missing?
Have we got a local Sheriff that can serve paperwork? We didn't before, they had to drive, at landlord's expense, from Woodstock.
The landlord should have their lawyer draft the eviction notice and the local Sheriff (or Police) delivers the eviction notice. All of which can take place in 1 day. The police can even watch over the tenants as they vacate the premises. After the tenants are out the landlord would have the lock tumblers changed. The process to evict tenants who have broken the lease agreement is quite seamless as long as the lease agreement has the properly written terms.
DeleteJLM. . .
Deletethat is not true.. And Illeagal in Vermont I don't believe it ever happened that way before ever.
It flies in the face of everything in the Landlord Tennant Handbook..
You'd be better off believing in throwing the tennant out on the street and letting them take you to court.
I should correct my post that the tenants must first be given a 30 day written notice prior to the eviction. Other than that the process is as stated per the Vermont Landlord Tenants Rights law.
Deletelook .... not trying to argue. It can take over 90 days.
DeleteIT IS SLOW
It "can" if it's done wrong.
DeleteIt "can" it it is done correctly too, poster is correct.
DeleteAnd from there, you'll never see a dime.
My personal experiences with having tenants evicted was pretty smooth. In the past 12 years I've only had to evict 3 tenants and the worst case took me 5 weeks from start to finish. My first question to the lawyer each time was "how long will this take" and he always told me "6 weeks or less" and he was correct each time. Maybe it helps I have a lawyer with a strong knowledge of Landlord/Tenant law.
Delete@ Springfield Townie
DeleteHow much did your lawyer charge you
How much did you loose out on
What condition was the place left in ?
He paid me.
DeleteI made money on the deal.
Pristine. The evicted tenants even baked me cookies.
@Anonymous 5:49PM
DeleteI actually have a retainer rate with my attorney so the scale slides depending on how much I use him throughout the year. The first two evictions went fine with no hic-ups and the tenants left the place in fair/good condition. The last tenant I had leave was a "druggie" who left me $1500 worth of damage to the bathroom.
Disregard the "SpringfieldTownie" at 6:19PM, That was a bogus post by someone.
I think 6:19 was telling the truth.
DeleteI pulled a raid on my tennants apartment and stole their drugs to sell myself.
Out of business, they left me behind $150 in plastic baggies.
@tewth 9:07Am
DeleteWhat you did is highly illegal. You're worse than the tenants.
Agreed JLMachinist. They should also invest in their properties, rather than run them as shacks to get the maximum return out of them. Between that, filtering their applicants and your suggestion they might attract better tenants.
ReplyDeleteThere would have to be jobs to be able to attract better tenants.
Deletemaixmum return ?? I thought it was just a hedge against losses.
DeleteIf it was so bad that all they were getting was break even or losses they would get out of the business, not keep doing it over and over on all of their properties.
Delete@ 11:41 are you a town shill ?
Deleteyour wrong, they can't sell their buidings for the value of the mortgages or even the Tax value...
They are all under water in value to sale.
Here the short dollar is the $ answer..
And thus.. hedging losses are real and the only ones here are waiting for a better tommorrow.
@ 11:46, are you a landlord shill?
DeleteIt's a business. If they are losing money, get out of it. It is that simple. Sell the property at a loss. It's better than continuing a monthly loss, the degradation of the property, and dragging the rest of the street down with them. They are contributing to the problem and making it worse for everyone. A race to the bottom, I hope they win.
@ 11:52 Together We Stand Divided We Fall...
Deletewords to live by.
but you sir, can go suck with the socialists.
The above anon 11:46 is correct, currenty the real estate market is providing quite the easy entrance for first time home buyers and even low credit score holders.
There are not many tennants of wealth as most move on to their own homes. You can only blaim Town Governance for that.
The Landlord is more properly described as getting screwed from above and below.
Tax incentives that don't exist are clear statements from those in control of your area. Blaim your Town Councils.
We'd all rather be making money your a shill to think otherwise.
Bill Shill...way to keep it "polite and on-topic".
DeleteIf anything else in world could be the fault of the school district or town government I am sure you could find a way to make it fit. Landlords renting dumps because the town want it that way is weak. People above already made that point.
@ 3:42
Deleteit is mainly the town governance that stirs the pot of what we see today and what we see are cheap houses and poor town services. No real reason to move here, buy, or rent.. This equals less of a demand to contrast with the rediculous tax rate and education taxes the Landlord pays.
Show me a good school and I'll show you people who want to live by it.
This town can't even cover snow removal... again.
Wendi Germain is a toot !!!
ReplyDeleteIf her tennants don't pay the rent she wants a lean on their drug sales !!!
the landlords are so greedy because these bad tenants are usually on Section 8 funds; which is why decent people cannot afford to rent in Sfield
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Deletedecent people can buy their own houses in Springfield.
DeleteBlaim your Town Councils for not creating a different atmosphere for the more affluent.
Your not even going to get Hi-Quality dormers for the hospital or nicer apartments for their longer staying family members....
You're gonna get scum from the prison and their lower income families.
9 out of 10 Towns ahead of you have the same results why would yours be different ?
You must not be from around here, our town select board ("council") is comprised of progressive individuals that are on the forefront of recruiting affluent families to our town.
DeleteThe fact is you look for Section 8 renters that is what you will bring to town. They go where the cheap housing is. I don't buy these landlords crying poor. If they weren't making money at it, they wouldn't keep doing it, period.
DeleteIsn't one of our town councilors a section 8 renter?
DeleteNothing to see here, move along now.
Section eight housing is the worst thing that can happen within a community. It pays landlords more then the free market will bear for rental property in disrepair. Hence, there is no incentive for a landlord to improve his property. Leading to a business model of acquiring unsellable dumps at tax sale, then renting for maximum profit to those without a choice. In short order, adjoining properties become unsellable, fall into disrepair and like a cancer consumes a neighborhood. The infestation of undesirables, is just a side benefit.
ReplyDeleteThe solution is simple. Tax section eight properties consistent with the difference between what the market would bear, and what they profit on from State funds. Remove the incentive encouraging such property management.
Additionally, enact and ENFORCE zoning to limit section eight housing density within the community as well as not allowing rental property to fall into disrepair. Other communities have done it, no reason Springfield can't. Unless of course, those in town government are indirectly profiting form such practice.
SECTION 8 PAYS BELOW MAARKET
DeleteWell, until the Bush years of "de-regulation," Section 8 was the best affordable housing program in the world. Landlords were paid very well, but they couldn't get on the program until they met the highest standards in the world for subsidized housing. If you want to see what landlords offer for non-regulated, non-subsidized housing, I suggest you look at unsubsidized low-income housing in Texas. You will not want to live in such stuff.
DeleteIf there is no incentive for a landlord to maintain or improve his Section 8 property now, it's because the regulators have been encouraged to do what the SEC has been doing for Wall Street-- nothing.
So Chuckles, what exactly has your great Messiah done to rectify the situation? By your value system, with current, district, state, congress and executive offices all staffed by liberals, we should be living in a utopian nirvana.
ReplyDeleteWell, Anonymous, he's overseeing the last of the 14.5 million foreclosures engendered by the subprime mortgage pushers. Both of the foreclosure relief programs-- HAMP and the current one-- were "foaming the runway" for the Wall Street crooks, so you can expect to see an increased need for subsidized housing in Springfield. Too bad the Republicans are starving Section 8; those families will just have to occupy East and North Schools as they are.
DeleteVermont's been pretty lucky to have avoided subprime criminality for the most part. There are very few families who got trapped in it, mainly because our bankers were either more principled and more resistant to their parent companies in Cleveland and Scotland, etc. Plus, our credit unions and S&L's are much better regulated than America's banks.
And don't count on liberals to give you good government! They'll allow you to have sex with any willing adult, to determine for yourself how many children you want to bear and/or raise, to provide good public education for your kids and adequate funding for Springfield cops and first responders, and to simplify your parents' access to medical care and a comfortable life in their old age. Damn communists!!