Village Hall (photo by Dion Ogust)
Village trustees tabled a law requiring out-of-area landlords to have a local representative available should there be problems with their rental units. The public hearing on the law will continue at the trustees’ April 7 meeting at 5 p.m. at Village Hall, 43 Partition St.
The law is intended to prevent delays in issues relating to enforcement of any village laws or codes that have occurred in the past because of the difficulty of tracking down landlords who live elsewhere.
Some landlords had objected to an earlier version of the law, which required landlords to list the names of their tenants and the number of tenants in each unit, calling it an invasion of privacy. They also said that a list of the number of tenants in each unit should be eliminated as well. The revised law presented last week got rid of the requirements.
Bill Andersen, a local landlord, called the revised law “more concise,” and told trustees he believes they are now “on the right track.”
Local attorney Lanny Walter, who said that in the 1970s he was a legal aid lawyer who dealt with tenant and landlord issues, submitted a written assessment of the proposed law.
One of the sections of the law requires out-of-area landlords to hire a local “managing agent” who would serve as the local contact should there be problems with the rental units such as a fire or necessary repairs.
Walter wrote that this “may be asking too much in terms of the expense in relation to the rental income.”
Based on Walter’s report, and the hope that they will receive additional input from landlords, trustees said they would continue the public hearing April 7.