Control Your Lawbreaking Tenants

Printed on: Thu, Sep 06, 2007

Ordinance right move for Fairfield

By Kelvin Wade

The Fairfield City Council got it right this week passing the Community Safety Ordinance. The new ordinance will allow the city to target rental properties with a pattern of lawbreaking and allow them to fine the owners $1,000. It's another tool in the city's toolbox to help clean up Fairfield.

The measure allows owners to avoid paying the fine if they work with city officials to improve the problem at their properties. Eviction can be a long, nightmarish process. This really is about cleaning up the problems and not opening a new revenue stream for the city.

Like the ordinance passed last year that requires party organizers to pay for the cost of police if their parties get out of hand, these laws help put the onus on homeowners to be responsible.

The ordinance is not much different from what many residents already face as part of homeowner associations. Such associations have the right to levy fines and liens against property for a variety of infractions. The goal is to correct whatever the problem is and better the community.

There are too many absentee landlords who are willing to rent out their property to whomever can make the payments. Perhaps a regulation like this will prompt those landlords into doing their due diligence and doing background checks on who they rent to.

I've rented a house from a landlord who lived in San Francisco. I don't recall him ever setting foot in the house for the five years that I lived there. Now fortunately I took good care of his property and didn't cause any problems. But who would turn over such a costly investment to strangers and not check up on it? But that happens all the time.

I can understand landlords who disagree with the law. Good landlords are afraid of getting caught up in the new ordinance should previously good tenants have a misstep. But I believe it's clear that the city is looking for patterns of misbehavior.

There's already a state law that requires landlords to evict drug-dealing tenants or risk forfeiture of their property. So the new city ordinance isn't anything out of the ordinary.

This ordinance is for landlords like a former neighbor of mine. His tenant parked his semi on one side of the street and his boat on the other. He ran an illegal automotive repair shop out of his garage. The guy had knockdown, drag-out fights with his girlfriend and the police were at his house several times. His parties grew out of hand frequently. The situation didn't improve until the owner finally sold the property.

This measure gives the city a big stick.

What landlords can do to protect themselves is to investigate who they rent to. Check references. They should also periodically inspect their property, which they have the legal right to do. Talk to the neighbors and find out what your tenants are like when you're not around. Or hire a professional property management company to do the job.

No more will the oblivious absentee landlord collect their rent checks and stick us with their problem tenants. Maybe we'll all be able to live in peace.


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NOTES: I really think more and more communities will be enacting similar legislation. And it's not for people who occasionally screw up. It's not for tenants like that. It's for the chronic problem. There really are landlords who will rent to anyone as long as they pay. And that's just not good enough. If a landlord keeps renting to problem tenants that result in crime, the city needs to step in.

Neighbor problems are the worst. It's terrible to have to come home to a hostile environment. I've been there. I used to live across the street from a place that had revolving door tenants. It was clear the landlord didn't know who lived there. Sometimes we'd hear angry fighting between the couple that lived there. Other times, they'd let their pit bull run free. There were cars pulling up all hours of the night. The apartment complex was sold to a new owner and as soon as I saw him out there, I got to know him. I kept an eye on his property and reported to him whenever he came by and he was there a lot. It really turned the place around to have an attentive landlord.

Who would invest in something costing hundreds of thousands of dollars and then just turn the keys over to just anyone? It makes no sense to me. If the landlord can't be more interested, more hands on in their investment, then they should hire a management company to oversee it.

Living across the street from an out of control tenant with the landlord nowhere to be found sucks. I've been there and done that and don't want to do that again.