Mr. Albero,
You asked me about what tenants can do when their landlords will not make repairs when notified of problems by the tenants. By responding to you, I am not attempting to provide legal advice to anyone, but merely to point to resources tenants can use when they have questions or complaints. For example, Maryland's Office of the Attorney General has an excellent publication that is useful to tenants and landlords alike. One issue it addresses is when tenants cannot get their landlords to make repairs, notably those that are a threat to health and safety. As the publication notes, some repairs of a serious nature may qualify the tenant for having a rent escrow account established by the district court, to which they would pay their rent while resolution of the problem is pending. (Certain procedures must be followed.) The Attorney General's publication may be found at this link:
http://www.oag.state.md.us/consumer/landlordTenantPDF.pdf#search=%22landlord%22
Also, the Salisbury City Council passed Ordinance 2166 on August 8, 2011, signed into law by the Mayor on August 10, 2011, which requires every new or renewing lease in the City, verbal or written, to have a written Tenants' Rights Lease Addendum signed by the tenants and the landlord. If a tenant within the corporate limits entered in a lease on or after this law went into effect and did not sign and obtain a copy of this addendum, he or she can contact the Department of Neighborhood Services and Code Compliance at 410-341-9550. This addendum has contact information for other helpful resources and agencies. Information about the Tenants' Rights Lease Addendum can be found at this link:
http://www.ci.salisbury.md.us/cityclerk/briefingbook/Ordinances/Ord2166.pdf
I hope you and those with whom you share this information will find it to be of assistance. As always, anyone with questions or comments is welcome to contact me TerryECohen@gmail.com or 410-845-0296. Thank you for taking time to let me know about your concern.
Terry E. Cohen, President
Salisbury City Council
410.845.0296
You asked me about what tenants can do when their landlords will not make repairs when notified of problems by the tenants. By responding to you, I am not attempting to provide legal advice to anyone, but merely to point to resources tenants can use when they have questions or complaints. For example, Maryland's Office of the Attorney General has an excellent publication that is useful to tenants and landlords alike. One issue it addresses is when tenants cannot get their landlords to make repairs, notably those that are a threat to health and safety. As the publication notes, some repairs of a serious nature may qualify the tenant for having a rent escrow account established by the district court, to which they would pay their rent while resolution of the problem is pending. (Certain procedures must be followed.) The Attorney General's publication may be found at this link:
http://www.oag.state.md.us/consumer/landlordTenantPDF.pdf#search=%22landlord%22
Also, the Salisbury City Council passed Ordinance 2166 on August 8, 2011, signed into law by the Mayor on August 10, 2011, which requires every new or renewing lease in the City, verbal or written, to have a written Tenants' Rights Lease Addendum signed by the tenants and the landlord. If a tenant within the corporate limits entered in a lease on or after this law went into effect and did not sign and obtain a copy of this addendum, he or she can contact the Department of Neighborhood Services and Code Compliance at 410-341-9550. This addendum has contact information for other helpful resources and agencies. Information about the Tenants' Rights Lease Addendum can be found at this link:
http://www.ci.salisbury.md.us/cityclerk/briefingbook/Ordinances/Ord2166.pdf
I hope you and those with whom you share this information will find it to be of assistance. As always, anyone with questions or comments is welcome to contact me TerryECohen@gmail.com or 410-845-0296. Thank you for taking time to let me know about your concern.
Terry E. Cohen, President
Salisbury City Council
410.845.0296
19 comments:
We renters need to take back our city! If I was renting from doug I would call a lawyer and put my rent in escrow untill the safety issues are all fixed. Or I would look to break my lease and move somewhere else. For what those units go for you will have no issues finding another place to live. The tenents need to send doug a strong message and move out!
Councilwoman Cohen,
As a Salisbury taxpayer I would like to formally request that you stop spending your time (my tax dollars) drafting overtly long answers to questions that could be solved with a two second search on Google.
If these people care that badly about landlord/tenant problems, refer them to the public library to find their own solution (it is, after all, just across the street).
Mr. Albero, I request that you stop demanding answers to mundane questions from our public officials as they we are not paying them to cater to your every whim.
Sincerely,
Active Voter and Citizen of Salisbury
1:06
That's got to be Laura Mitchell a huge waste of space just like Shanie.
Shanie probably wouldn't know the date of the day if you ask her. The both combined are two boatloads of wasted seamen!
lol right back to where it all began ; )
TO: 1:06 Active Voter and Citizen of Salisbury
You are way out of line and you are probably wasting your employers money by spending company time writing your 3 paragraph letter! If we had more people like Cohen, Campbell and Spies that are addressing the problems instead of causing them, this would be a better place to live. And I don't even live in Salisbury! By the way I'm not wasting money by writing this, because I own my own company!
Respectfully,
Got a life!
1:06 p.m. is probably JT.
You have to know that Jimmy boy has to have someone to keep up with Joe's blog everyday and that person is Laura Mitchell.
I wouldn't be surprised if she quits and runs away crying like Jim Beau did when he was a council person. The quiter!
If you can't take the heat, move to Rehoboth permanently. And take your little dog Laura with you.
1:06 -
You are an idiot, not an active voter and citizen of Salisbury (and you are no doubt a landlord and member of SAPOA -- Donnie, perhaps)
How many of your tenants have any idea what Google is or have internet access.
And no search would provide the clear and concisely stated information provided by Ms. Cohen.
So, go hang out with Laura Mitchell -- you deserve each other.
Interesting to compare Ms. Cohen's timely and pertinent statement to Jim-Beau's media event to get TV time. She's a winner; he's a loser.
Terry (and Joe)-
Thanks for not being reluctant to take the cheap shots from dirtballs like 1:06.
Keep up the good work.
1:06, You ought to be ashamed of yourself. One thing I can assure YOU is that I pay more in taxes than YOU make in a year. Probably 2 or 3 years for that matter.
It is Council President Cohen's duty to answer to her constituency when they have a question or a problem and the venue in which she chooses to do it, is quite frankly none of your business! As a matter of fact this blog is the best venue because of it's traffic. Others may be experiencing similar problems and not know where to turn.
1:06 Active Voter and Citizen of Salisbury
That probably is the fat guy, nowhere does he say he's a taxpayer because he lives day to day from public handouts.
The profile of the Grinch.
This person calls themselves and active voter. See why we got problems?
First of all no one with any ounce of sense would refer someone to the library for a landlord/tenant problem. You would refer them to exactly where Pres Cohen did-to the MD Attorney Generals site.
Also anyone who thinks it is a waste of time for an elected official to respond to a resident's question and concerns no matter the venue is a lost cause and a waste of time trying to explain anything to.
A strong message needs to be sent to Doug! Fix your stuff or no one will rent from you. Doug is too busy playing footsie living in DC then worrying about his tenets. I rented from him 3 years ago and decided I need a more affordable place to call home.
2:25, how very elegant! I assume you mean SEMEN, because wasted seamen means the same as drunken sailors.
What about the tenant that could have died in the fire at Doug's rental on College Ave? Doesn't seem to me that he cares much about tenant safety or our city.
Joe:
Kudos for posting the 1:06 comment, even if it from the blubber blogger. Folks need to be reminded that SAPOA and other special interests are trying their best to force Ms. Campbell and Ms. Cohen off the Council
???renters taking back "our city"??? tsk,tsk,tsk. I'd like to see homeowners with a leg up!
WTG Ms. Cohen. Thank you for your service!
1:06 = Jackass
Cohen's response was to Joe based on whatever he asked. He decided to post it. What is the big deal?
It wasn't a long answer. Someone smart probably didn't need long to write it. Probably took 1:06 hours to read it.
It's none of 1:06's business whether it takes 10 minutes or an hour for an elected official to do something. He (or she) still gets paid the same.
What a jackass. I sent the post to my kid renting across the bridge. The Maryland info is the same wherever, so thanks, Joe, and thanks, Mrs. Cohen. Don't let the jackasses get you down.
As December 8, 2011 9:29 PM pointed out their was a young lady who was living in an overcrowded rental house on College Avenue and seriously burned when the dump caught on fire. The house caught on fire late one afternoon while many of the students were in the house at the time. Can you imaging if that house caught on fire around 4am!! There would have been 8 fire fatalities in the city. That dump was owned by a young slumlord by the name of Doug Church. This slumlord happened to be a Friend of Barrie who was mayor at the time. Not many remember this house fire because Barrie Tilghman tried her best to cover it up and protect her you supporter. Barrie also tried to sell Slumlord Doug Church the city parking lot next to the Market Street Inn so Dougie could get rich building and selling 10 Condo's on the Ditch! Barrie's actions reminds me a lot of what Jim Ireton is doing today. These people aren't Friends of Jim's he is just trying to appease his enemies like Obama is doing with foreign countries. Boy, what a vicious cycle of Democrats!
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