Do Not Take Property Owners for Granted, Seriously

Written by Susan Bailey, MS

Since I work for a property management company, I see all things that the owner must deal with in order to keep his properties functioning and business evolving. From listening to my boss discussing meetings that the local property owners attend, I learned that most property owners in this area try to stay on top of maintenance issues, and to make sure their rentals are safe and up to code. I also know that there are a few property owners who do not take care of their rentals as they should.

I am writing this post because of the upcoming election in our town for mayor and city council members. There are some candidates that want to enact city inspections on rental properties. Likewise, they have floated the idea of making all city residents register with the city. In order to do this, it will be up to the property owners to submit paperwork to the city every time a tenant moves into a rental. In addition, these candidates want all property owners to lowers their rents so that low-income persons can afford them.

I understand that a lot of persons who have low income cannot afford the rental amounts. I also know that one of the low income housing facilities is always advertising empty apartments. When it comes to housing, people need to realize what their income will allow them to afford in rent. It should not be up to the property owners to lower rents to accommodate persons who would not be able to afford the rental anyways.

The rental amounts in this area are pretty much the same with all property owners. Bigger apartments with more bedrooms cost more than smaller apartments; houses cost more than apartments. However, rent is only one part of rentals. There are all the utilities that need paid as well. Water and sewer is not a cheap bill, add refuse in there and the bill can run anywhere from $60 monthly and up depending on the water usage. Add electric, gas, cell phones, cable and internet, and low-income persons cannot afford to live in these rentals even if the property owners would lower rents.

The problem with what these candidates are proposing is this….First, for the city to make inspections mandatory means that there will be fees associated with each inspection. Not only will the owner have to pay for these fees, but he/she will also have to pay someone to give the inspectors access to the rentals, or the owner will have to do this. Regardless of whether an employee of the rental company goes to the properties or the owner goes, that is time in which the owner will have to pay.

Second, as for these candidates trying to get property owners to lower rents, they need to realize that owning these properties are their livelihood. Furthermore, the candidates expect lower rents, but the property owners cannot seek criminal charges when tenants destroy properties, or leave the rentals and do not clean them. Tenants will leave electronics which cost a lot of money to dispose of, and some will just leave and not take anything. In this case, the property owners have to spend massive amounts of time, labor, and materials to just get the property rentable again. If these tenants would be charged with destruction of property then maybe tenants will take better care of these rentals and property owners would not have to spend so much money on the upkeep. With the amount of money the owners have to put back into the properties after one tenant moves out, there is no way they can afford to lower rents.

Third, the cost of these inspections and the time allotted to have someone follow around the inspector will eventually trickle back to the tenants. Again, these costs are taking income away from property owners and to compensate, most likely, in time, the rents will go up, not down.

Fourth, to make residents register with the city is merely for tax purposes, so the city can bill persons living in the rentals. The city has no way of knowing who is actually living in a rental property, thus the idea of registrations. Again, this registration process will generate a lot of paperwork, and the property owners will be the persons responsible for getting new tenants registered with the city. This is more money property owners will have to pay someone to take care of all the paperwork associated with this process.

Saegertown already has a registration in place. Since the company has one property in Saegertown, we know what this paperwork entails. If the tenant does not go to the borough and give them their post office box number, then someone from the borough contacts our office. Thus we have to track down the tenant and tell them what they have to do. The problem is that we cannot make the person do what he/she has to do. If there is any problem with a tenant, the borough calls us because they know who lives there and who owns the property. Instead of the borough handling an issue, for example, excessive garbage piling up, someone from the borough office calls here and then we have to try to deal with it. This, again, creates more monies that property owners will fork out for the time of taking care of problems that the borough or the city (if this registration process is enacted) should handle on their own.

I have done clean-outs for the property owner that I rent from, and I see how these rentals look after people move out. Rarely, did I come across an apartment that did not need money put back into it to make in rentable. The apartments are left in what can only be called disgusting disarray. Some of them smell so bad, you cannot even enter. Some places have bedbugs or fleas that need to be exterminated before a worker can even begin to clean. Places need painted, stoves/ovens, and refrigerators need all the parts taken out and scoured with hot soapy water. Bathrooms are another place that appear to have never been cleaned. I have ran into piles of excrement from pets. I have entered a couple places where the person just left everything and it was up to me and the owner to get rid of all the stuff. In this case, we never know what we will get into. I can say this, property owners need hazmat suits when they get into this type of mess, and unfortunately, this is not an exaggeration.

In conclusion, what these candidates are asking for and what they want to enact against property owners is only going to blow back in their faces. Lowering rents is not feasible, making persons register with the city is probably not going to go over well with tenants, nor will the inspections. These inspections will be seen as inconvenient, and invading a person’s personal space. What these candidates need to do is inform tenants of the programs already in place, such as inspections done from an employee of the fire department. Instead of alienating property owners, they need to work with them to come up with solutions.