As the state begins to implement last November’s sweeping new housing law, legislators should evaluate every proposal this year with this lens: Will it support — and grow — quality, secure housing?
Rent should represent the cost of providing rental housing — including maintenance, repair, upkeep, utility, property taxes, insurance, labor costs, and capital improvement, and those costs are increasing faster than rent increases.
Rent control laws undermine housing supply, causing higher rents in uncontrolled units and reduced quality in controlled units. We urge legislators not to follow that pathway of unintended consequences and oppose arbitrary rent caps.
Legislators should also reject — as they have done in the past two years — changing Connecticut’s “lapse of time” law. A lease is a contract, with a beginning and an end, agreed to by residents and housing providers. When the lease’s time lapses, both parties have the opportunity to agree whether to renew it.
No one wants to be in an eviction situation — and when the need arises for a landlord to non-renew a lease, people should not consider it as such. There are times when a landlord needs to non-renew a lease. Sometimes, this is because a tenant violates their lease or creates an unsafe situation that is disruptive or threatening to other apartment residents. The eviction process under Connecticut’s nuisance law is extremely lengthy and uncertain, which leaves “lapse of time” — ending a lease at its termination date — as the only reasonable tool for housing providers to timely address the matter for all who reside in the community, and move on from these tenants. Lapse of time only makes up 7% of evictions recorded in Connecticut, underscoring the fact that a reactive proposal to eliminate this tool won’t support — and grow — quality, secure housing, it will do the opposite.
Accountability is vital to landlord-tenant relationships, and there should be no such thing as an unreachable landlord. Beginning April 1, a new law requires housing providers to provide a standardized rental terms summary form on every lease, listing 24-hour contact information for the property management, this is a much-needed step to accountability, and we continue to support these initiatives and look forward to seeing its success.
Each new session brings the opportunity to evaluate current law — not just introduce new ones. Let’s build on the reforms that were just passed and make it easier to develop and build safe, secure multifamily housing that works for every budget.
Author: Kelly Kilham
Source: https://www.ctinsider.com/waterbury/opinion/article/connecticut-housing-bill-landlords-21943280.php