At Monday’s Salisbury Council meeting, one item up for a vote was the first reading of the “Tenants’ Bill of Rights Addendum”. A sound idea, in principle, one clue that this measure was overly bureaucratic was the fact that it has taken three months to make it to first reading.
Enter John Cannon. A former county councilman and large landlord, Cannon spoke to the measure on Monday evening and offered a better solution.
Cannon suggested that instead of demanding a special addendum (on watermarked stationary, according to Cannon), why not simply require that the relevant information be incorporated in a tenant’s lease. Instead of a full page, listing several LONG web addresses, why not have all of the relevant information put on a separate page of the city’s web site. Then, the portion of the lease containing the “Tenants’ Bill of Rights” info could include one link. Then, Cannon argued, each landlord can simply certify that the information is in their standard lease and that every tenant signs the standard lease.
See that? No multi-page legislation. No bureaucratese. One paragraph. The city could meet all of the requirements of their legislation in three (3) relatively short paragraphs
Cannon’s plan isn’t perfect. It could use a couple of tweaks. One, the city SHOULD put this information on their own website. The landlord could include the URL to that particular page of the city’s site. However, instead of a long URL that can be easily screwed up the city should set up an account with Bit.ly. This would give them a short, easy URL.
The city could require that the tenant initial the “Tenants’ Bill of Rights” section of the lease. This would cover the “Tenants’ Bill of Rights” and the “Four-to-Two” portion in less than half a page.
Some councilmembers will argue that some landlords don’t have written leases. Maybe. That’s a simple fix. Require those landlords to get a signed 1 page addendum.
Cannon’s proposal is a good one. The council should adopt it. It is possible to promote fair, safe housing without being overly burdensome on the business people who own or manage the largest pot of assets in Wicomico County.
9 comments:
What if the incoming renter who has to come up with first, last & security deposits as well as utility deposits and is currently without a place to live (that's why he's looking to rent) is without internet service? How will he read the agreement? Not everybody has internet, you know.
so how long do you think it will take the Council to tweak, retweak, dicuss, question, dig their heels in with no I'm not unless.... tweak again, retweak, discuss, table and than never put it to a vote. I am surprised you are not aware Council is too busy fighting each other and the Mayor to get anything passed.
Mr Cannon has very good suggestions, BUT they are just too easy and simple solutions for Council to wrap their minds around.
Anon 0825 -
I was waiting for that one.
If you go on the City's website and look at the proposed "Tenant's Rights Addendum" you will see that most the information is a list URL's. So, if they can't get access to the internet they won't be able to get this info anyway.
It's a valid question. The only problem is that if you wanted to give out all of this info in writing, you would probably have a 100 page "addendum".
The library has free computer usage- right?
hey 825, there's free internet at the library..
how about our loving and caring Mayor, maybe Sheree Sample Hughes assign you a personal assistant to take you there, all at taxpayer expense of course, because after all you are entitled to it. Better bring a flashlight so you can find that upon which you sit!
Do you think John Cannon is really concerned about the cost of stationery to the city? He wants to bury this language so that tenants don't see it. Small print, buried somewhere in a lengthy lease.
Anon 0948 -
Burying the info can be handled (such as making them initial or sign the section). You can specify to put it before the signature.
Have you priced watermarked stationary lately? Even John Cannon is concerned about the cost.
The city can just have it in pdf form for landlords to download. Cheap, cheap, cheap.
11:26, thank you.
To the guy writing this post, there's nothing in the law that required it to be fancy stationery. I can do a watermark on my 'puter. All the landlord has to do is print off the form and execute. Since the doc is up for inspection, if they try to do their own and misrepresent the city, fine them. My home in Montgomery Co. has the whole lease standardized and online.
The phones and addresses are on the addendum, too, not just web links so a guy like me could whip out my basic cell phone (can't upgrade yet to the fancy stuff yet) and call any of those offices. No written lease? You say have them do a 1-page addendum. That's what the law says, too.
I've had my eye on this to see if the council would deliver and they have. I've been ripped off in this city before and wish this had been in place before. I was young and naive and no, I didn't get state's little handout.
"one clue that this measure was overly bureaucratic was the fact that it has taken three months to make it to first reading."
Did take awhile but given SBY's track record on housing law, maybe that's not the council's fault? Who advises these people anyway?
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