Rental panel revisits life-quality suggestions

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Rental panel revisits life-quality suggestions

Ideas given to council in February
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 07/11/07
BY NICK PETRUNCIO
FREEHOLD BUREAU

FREEHOLD — The number for the Freehold Code Enforcement Office is [phone].

Landlords and renters are not exempt from contributing to a desirable quality of life here, a borough committee wants to remind people.

Members of the Rental Property Advisory Committee reconvened Tuesday to review the status of recommendations they presented to the Borough Council in February.

The recommendations included code enforcement and policy suggestions intended to educate landlords and renters and to combat violations like overcrowding in apartments or running a restaurant at a rental property.

Borough leaders have either implemented or are implementing some of the 15 recommendations the committee made. Others could not be done because of budgetary or legal issues.

The borough's plans include:

Inspecting all rental properties on an annual basis, including on Saturdays — which currently is going on;

Subscribing to an Internet-based software program to track and log complaints; Reviewing and updating property maintenance code and housing code ordinances;

Preparing a checklist detailing maintenance items.

Those items will be monitored by the Code Enforcement Office, and the checklist will be posted on the borough Web site along with noncompliant properties. Also, names of convicted violators will be publicized via the news media.

Semiannual forums for landlords and tenants also will take place, at which time a summary of the booklet "Truth in Renting" in both English and Spanish will be provided. Borough officials want to make sure the booklet gets into the hands of all renters.

"They're very satisfied with what we've done so far, and we're all waiting to monitor the results," said Councilman and committee liaison Marc LeVine, referring to the general feelings of the committee.

LeVine noted that the borough is not trying to come down hard on all landlords. He said most are good, but some are poor managers and others are repeat offenders who don't care.

Three new ideas came out of the meeting that LeVine said he will ask borough Administrator Joseph Bellina today to put on the agenda for the Aug. 13 workshop meeting. They are: holding a public forum to address issues such as putting forward a complaint; modifying the duties of the Multiple Dwelling Review Board to include all rental properties; and having the committee meet again in mid-November.

The committee was chartered for only a year, but there was talk of making the committee a more permanent fixture and having it function in an advisory capacity.

Members also encouraged all residents to be vigilant and report anything they suspect as being a code violation, and Le-Vine said everyone needs to take pride in the town.

Problems such as people leaving discarded mattresses on their properties outside have plagued the borough, in addition to things like overcrowding. Approximately 95 percent of the rental properties in the borough are owned by absentee landlords, according to Bellina.

Nick Petruncio: [phone] or [e-mail]

[admin]

I am very surprised that nobody has opined on this very important topic.

I am glad to here that the committee has met again. My question, is this a public meeting? Either way, I hope this committee remains as a staple of our town for at least a while.

I like a lot of what I read. Any and all issues related to this topic must remain in the public eye. The more in the public eye this committee and code enforcement is, the better.

[Marc LeVine]

RENTAL PROPERTY REPORT REVIEW AND ACTION PLAN


The Mayor and Council established a Rental Property Advisory Committee in response to voluminous complaints about the state of rental housing in the Borough. The purposes, powers and duties of the Rental Property Advisory Committee are:

a. Review the status of rental housing in the Borough, with particular emphasis on single-family rental homes.
b. Preserve the health, safety and welfare of tenants, landlords and the community at large.
c. Encourage landlords and tenants to restore and maintain structures to the standards defined by the BOCA code.
d. Encourage dialogue between the concerns of tenants, landlords and the community regarding problems affecting all residents.
e. Research all potential solutions, including rent control, to the complex problems in the rental housing market.
f. Serve in an advisory capacity to the Building Department, Code Office and Borough Council and all other Borough Departments and offices in an effort to maintain the character of Freehold Borough and preserve the public health, safety and welfare regarding rental housing. The committee shall also make recommendations to the above entities for the development of policies and procedures in general and for programs of formal and informal education that will promote awareness of the housing code, fire and safety issues and all issues affecting rental housing.
g. The Rental Property Committee shall perform other reviews and investigations that are requested by the Mayor and/or Council.
i. Make recommendations to the Mayor and Council for the protection of the health, safety and welfare of tenants, landlords and the community at large regarding rental housing.

Over a period a many months, the Committee met to address the issues. The Committee issued a report containing their findings and recommendations to the Mayor and Council. The Mayor and Council have reviewed the Committee report and wishes to develop an Action Plan in response thereto.

The recommendations and response are as follows:

1. Mandatory annual inspection of all rental properties.
Response: Systematic inspections of all rental properties have already been implemented and will continue. Additionally, the Borough has authorized Code Officers to work on Saturdays to carry out these and other inspections.

2. Hire additional, well-trained support staff and inspectors in the Code Enforcement Office.
Response: In a meeting with Committee members, several antecdoctal stories about complaints to the hot line going unanswered, direct complaints to the department seemingly ignored, etc. were raised. This was of concern to the Borough staff as there is a protocol for reviewing all complaints in a prompt manner and responding to the complainant. The Borough Administrator and Attorney met with Hank Stryker and his code officers to review these complaints and to review the protocols. A worksheet will be started and completed regarding every complaint. Code officers will attempt to advise every complainant, where possible, of the action taken in response to each complaint. The Borough Administrator reviews and monitors the worksheets on a regular basis. He will advise Mayor and Council of any concerns and whether any corrective action is required or has been taken.
Mr. Stryker and his staff did not feel that additional staff was required. It was felt that the new software program that the Borough is in the process of procuring will assist them in their efforts – both in carrying out investigations and in responding to the complainants in a prompt manner. The importance of providing responses to complainants was addressed with staff.
Action: The Borough will try to devise a method of informing complainants that their complaint has been received and will be investigated.
Mayor and Council will discuss the need and viability of hiring additional staff. The Mayor and Council and Code Office has already implemented a plan whereby code officers are working on Saturday to carry out systematic and other inspections.

3. Ensure that current tracking methods are adequate for following up on complaints.
Action: The Borough has researched two software programs, and selected one, that will provide tracking of all types of cases. It is anticipated that a contract will be executed in the near future.

4. Review and update all Borough ordinances.
Response: It was agreed that this was a good idea – but an extraordinary undertaking.
Action: Joe Bellina, Hank Stryker and Kerry Higgins will start the process by reviewing just the Property Maintenance Code and housing code ordinances. Hank Stryker will ask his staff to provide a list of recommendations for changes to the Ordinances. This should address the specific request of the committee, as it relates to their specific focus.

5. Increase fines for violations of Borough ordinances.
Response: The Mayor and Council recently adopted an ordinance that increases fines for violations other than housing code violations (as permitted by a newly enacted stature by the legislature). This Ordinance increased non-housing code violation fees to $2,000, the new maximum statutory limitations for municipal fines. Housing code and zoning violation penalties must remain at the $1200 level, pursuant to the statute, unless the Council wants to give a right to cure or remedy before the issuance of a violation, summons and fine. In order to raise the penalty for housing violations, a notice to cure must be given to the responsible party. The Mayor and Council felt that this would dilute the enforcement process and increase the workload of the inspectors who would then need to re-inspect properties that were given a notice to cure. All non-housing and zoning violations are subject to the increased fine.

6. Levy fines (issue summonses) for every violation occurring simultaneously. Discussion with Hank Stryker confirmed that the current practice is to issue a summons for every violation that the code enforcement officer observes and for which there is a reasonable basis. By law, in Court, some of the individual charges may merge. It is within the prosecutor’s discretion to dismiss or merge some of the charges. In exchange for a guilty plea to the most serious offense, the prosecutor may merge or dismiss other counts or charges to avoid the time and expense of a trial.

7. Discontinue the practice of fining (issuing a summons against) only one owner in a multiply-owned property.
Response: There were no specific examples of this occurring. Discussions with Code officers confirmed that they issue summonses against the responsible parties in each case.
Action: In discussions with Hank Stryker, it was recommended that they should, where appropriate, issue a summons against all owners, if there is more than one. The prosecutor and Judge will determine how to proceed. The committee was advised that it was likely that there would not be multiple convictions or fines, unless circumstances warranted same. Most rental properties are owned by entities (corporations, LLC’s, partnerships, etc.) and it is the entity that is issued the summons.

8. Request jail or community service for overcrowding. Post names of landlord offenders in newspapers. Forward names of offenders to IRS, NJ Division of Taxation, their mortgage company and insurer.
Response: The Mayor and Council does not control the municipal court. Jail is not often an appropriate penalty for such a municipal ordinance violation except for chronic violators with serious offenses. Community service is often part of the penalty. The Judge has the discretion to make community service a part of the penalty and the Prosecutor may request same.
The Borough has, on several occasions, provided information as to employers picking up workers in the muster zone to IRS, NJ Div of Taxation and Dept of Labor to no avail and without receiving any feedback from the agencies. The Mayor and Council will periodically review this issue to determine whether to direct employees efforts in this or other directions.
There may be liability issues related to providing information to mortgage companies and insurers. Additionally, as long as the mortgage is current, code violations would not be likely to result in any forfeiture of the property. An insurer may have more interest in this issue, but Mayor and Council would need to review this issue more fully to determine whether the expenditure of employee effort in this area would be worthwhile.
Action: Giving the names of convicted landlords to the Press will be accomplished by the Court Clerk providing this information to the Administrator who will forward same to the local reporters.
The Mayor and Council discussed and will review the idea of placing information about non-compliant properties on its website and to provide links to other websites that give information to the public about properties.


9. Require landlords who violate ordinance to a). reimburse for tenant relocation; b) reimburse the school district for children of illegally housed tenants who wrongfully attend the schools; c) reimburse Borough for remediation costs in case of fire in overcrowded or unsafe unit.
Response and Action: a) Landlords are held responsible for relocation costs in instances where tenants are relocated. However, Borough policy is to issue summonses for violations rather than remove and actively relocate tenants. Relocation is utilized in cases where there is imminent danger to the property or people. The issuance of summonses and penalties against landlords and tenants is a stronger tool than involving the Borough in relocating tenants. Please note that relocation has very stringent rules and rights attached thereto and relocated children would still be the Borough responsibility to educate for the school year. b) This issue was referred to the school board. c) It was discussed that in areas that are available for reimbursement, the Borough pursues same. The fire department is volunteer and thus there is no reimbursement for those costs.

10. Require property and casualty insurance for all rentals.
Response and Action: The Landlord Registration Ordinance would have to be amended to make this a requirement. The Council considered that any property with a mortgage, which is likely the majority, would be required by the lender to maintain insurance. Additionally, this requirement would only benefit the landlord, and not the tenant or Borough. At this time, it was determined not to amend the Ordinance.

11. Increase fines for each repeat occurrence of a violation. Revoke C/O’s and/or landlord registration. Post bond for repeaters.
Response and Action: The new Ordinance, already adopted by the Council, increases the fines and also creates a separate violation for repeat offenses. The Code staff was advised of the Ordinance so that they may issue a separate summons for a repeat offense (under the new ordinance, a repeat offense is now an offense on its own).
There is no legal basis to revoke the landlord registration. Theoretically, a C/O could be revoked upon certain conditions, but, in that instance, the tenant would have to be relocated. As set forth above, it was explained that the Mayor and Council thought that the issuance of summonses and fines was a better deterrent than this option which would require the Borough to relocate tenants and then pursue the landlord for the costs. Council can revisit this issue in the future.
There is no legal basis to require a landlord to post a bond. The statute regarding seasonal rentals (animal house) gives more rights to municipalities. But the law does not give the same regarding non-seasonal rentals because that would interfere with a tenant’s home and ability to find a place to live, rather than vacation.

12. “Deputize” other Borough employees to report possible violations.
Response: All public works employees are trained and encouraged to report violations and conditions and to remedy conditions as they are observed. Unfortunately, this is difficult to enforce and monitor.
Action: The employees will be periodically reminded to be observant for and report property maintenance violations.

13. Programs/methods to educate landlords and tenants. Give landlords notice of the possible penalties for code violations. Add additional bi-lingual staff.
Response and Action: The Mayor and Council recommend that the Human Relations Committee host semi-annual forums for landlords and tenants, during which it distribute a summary from the booklet “Truth in Renting”. Council also directs the Code Enforcement Supervisor to prepare a checklist detailing maintenance items for all properties that will be monitored by the Code office and to post the checklist on the website and distribute same to landlords, tenants and homeowners. Kerry and Hank will work on a checklist. All were supportive of the forum idea.

14. Forums for potential homebuyers, realtors and seniors.
Response and Action: Mayor and Council felt this was a great idea, to be referred to the Human Relations Committee for action.

15. Consider ordinance requiring proof of citizenship for rental.
Response and Action: Mayor and Council determined that at this time, such an ordinance would not have a legal foundation and would not be considered. The court cases involving Riverside and Hazelton will be monitored.