Three bills at the State House will seriously affect condo owners

-   Two domestic violence bills will hurt condo owners

-   A rent escrow bill will protect condo owners from rent-scamming tenants 

SPOA is alerting condo owners and condo associations that three bills at the State House will have a serious impact on them – and political pressures are presently moving against the best interests of condo owners and associations. We need to rally condo owners and associations to contact their state legislators to persuade them to act favorably towards condominiums.

Whether you rent your condo or owner-occupy it, certain state legislators want to give control of condos to tenants – at your expense. Three bills aim to help condo tenants block their eviction and allow them to live rent-free, which will affect the quality of life in condos as well as interfere with condo association finances. Half of all Boston condos are rented, so the influence of condo tenants could be tremendous, especially since condo owners are the smallest, most vulnerable owners.

As chairman of our State Legislature’s Joint Committee on Housing, Representative Kevin Honan in particular is using his influential position to promote a domestic violence bill that will hurt condo owners and to oppose a “rent escrow” bill that will help them. Here’s a description of these bills.

• DOMESTIC VIOLENCE BILLS (H.1241 and S.755)

Representative Kevin Honan is the chief sponsor of a bill at the State House (H.1241) that would give special tenant rights to victims of domestic violence. This bill and a very similar one (S.755) have a sympathetic appeal, but they are a disaster for condo owners and condo associations. Under these bills, if tenants are causing loud fights and property damage, the condo owner could not evict them or refuse to renew their tenancy if one of them claims to be a victim of domestic violence.

How can condo associations run successfully if everyone must endure without end loud fights and property damage?!? Yet certain state legislators think you should.

There are more bad things in these pro-tenant bills. If the victim of domestic violence wants to break the lease, the condo owner must let her (or him) go AND must pay back all her prepaid rent, last month’s rent and security deposit, leaving behind the rest of the household as continuing tenants or leaving the unit vacant and the owner unable to pay condo fees.

Claiming to be a victim of domestic violence is so easy that anyone can do it. And that’s exactly what will happen. Under these bills, any condo tenant could claim victim status and block their eviction – OR force the condo owner to let them go when the owner needs to pay his or her condo fees.

Domestic violence is a sad thing and a serious problem, but it should not be the legal duty of private condo owners or the board of trustees to help solve the problem – in a way that won’t solve it. State Representative Kevin Honan and your own state senator and representative need to hear from you that you do NOT want either of these domestic violence bills to pass, become law, and make condos unlivable and less valuable.

• A RENT ESCROW BILL to stop the “free rent trick” (S.780)

Meanwhile, State Representative Kevin Honan and other legislators support the tenants’ free rent scam. They oppose a “rent escrow” bill that would protect condo owners from tenants living rent-free for long periods at the condo’s expense.

Here’s how the “free rent trick” works when tenants stop paying rent. First, the condo owner sends them an eviction notice. Then the tenants call the housing inspector. Then the owner and the association get a list of code violations from the city. And now the tenants claim they are “withholding” the rent because of those violations. They are following a defective state law that allows this rent withholding, allows them to keep the rent when something is wrong with their apartment or building.

Now the condo owner can’t evict the nuisance tenants, making the condo a living hell. The owner and the association need to repair those violations fast so the owner can proceed with eviction. But the tenants won’t let the owner in, because as long as those code violations exist, they can live rent-free. If the condo owner and the association finally do the repairs, the tenants undo them all afterwards! Or they call the inspector with a new list of violations that they created! They are damaging the condo and common areas in order to live rent-free as long as possible. When the judge finally figures it out, the tenants have cost the condo owner and the condo association many months of lost revenue, expensive repairs, and high lawyer’s fees.

State Representative Kevin Honan and other state legislators support this “free rent trick” and oppose a bill to protect condominiums. A “rent escrow” bill (S.780) would make condo tenants pay the withheld rent to the court while those violations are being repaired. If the tenants don’t pay (“escrow” the rent), they get promptly evicted for not paying their rent. If they do escrow, the condo owner gets paid the escrowed rent after the repairs are done and can pay past-due fees and special assessments and stay current.

Rent escrowing is the only fair thing to do when a tenant says they don’t have to pay the rent because of bad conditions in the condo or common areas.

TALK TO REPRESENTATIVE KEVIN HONAN AND YOUR OWN STATE SENATOR AND REPRESENTATIVE – IT’S EASY

Representative Kevin Honan and other legislators take these pro-tenant positions because they do not hear from YOU, the condo owners in their districts. THEY NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU. You need to tell them to vote NO on the domestic violence bill (the bill number is H.1241) and to vote YES on the rent escrow bill (S.780). Your condominium is your biggest investment. It’s your home. Act NOW!

You can call, email or write them. BUT PLEASE DO IT RIGHT NOW! All you need to say to the office assistant is “Please tell Representative ___________ [or Senator __________] to vote NO on H.1241 or S.755, the domestic violence bills, and vote YES on S.780, the rent escrow bill.” If you want to explain why you take your position, fine. But please take action NOW! Here is Kevin Honan’s contact information:

Representative Kevin Honan

State House, Room 38

Boston, MA 02133

617-722-2470

Rep.KevinHonan@hou.state.ma.us

You can find out who your State Senator and State Representative are at this link:

www.wheredoivotema.com

Enter your home address, then scroll down the page to find “Senate in General Court” and “Rep in General Court.” These are your Senator and Representative.

Thank you for taking action NOW!

To read the bills, click on the following links:

H.1241: http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/house/185/ht01pdf/ht01241.pdf

S.755: http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/senate/185/st00/st00755.htm

S:780: http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/senate/185/st00/st00780.htm

            The domestic violence bills are readable by a layman, but the rent escrow bill (S.780) is very legally detailed and enmeshed in complex landlord-tenant law. The description above tells you what it does – requires the tenant to escrow the rent with the court whenever the tenant claims to withhold rent for code violations in their condo.