Stricter punishments and direct contact information for the owners of a Rocky Hill apartment complex, may have prevented hundreds of residents from being displaced, according to Rocky Hill Mayor Allan Smith.
Smith recently spoke before the state legislature’s Planning and Development Committee in favor of two bills that would strengthen oversight and punishment for negligent landlords.
Hundreds of residents of the Concierge Apartments in Rocky Hill were temporarily displaced from their homes in February due to what Smith called a lack of maintenance. The proposed bills would’ve made a difference, Smith said.
“They would have given us a clearer path to intervene earlier, hold ownership accountable sooner, and potentially prevent the situation from escalating to the point where hundreds of families lost stability in their lives,” Smith said.
The proposed bills would raise the fines for building code violations.
The bills’ supporters say current fines of a couple hundred dollars aren’t enough and place no burden on multi-million dollar companies.
Existing punishments aren’t enough, according to State Rep. Eleni Kavros-DeGraw, a Democrat who represents Avon and Canton, said. She expects more similar legislation to spring up attempting to address corporate landlords.
“When you're a huge company that owns, probably, property in multiple states, and you are these out-of-state landlords that we keep hearing about that are consistent bad actors, the fact that we don't have more teeth to go after them, that that is really part of the issue,” Kavros-DeGraw said.
The bills would also require that landlords be more accessible to tenants and provide a more direct line of contact. One of the bills would also allow municipalities to intervene if landlords remain unresponsive to requests for code violations.
“If we get this right, the next town will not need a crisis to get compliance. The next group of families will not need to become a headline to be heard,” Smith said.
Opponents of the bills say they are too restrictive and would put more burden on small, mom-and-pop landlords and municipalities.
State Rep. Irene Haines, a Republican representing East Haddam, East Hampton and Salem, has reservations around the bills. Haines is particularly concerned about how they can differentiate between large corporate landlords and local owners.
“I'm just wondering whether or not these bills are going to put the burden on municipalities for these single homes that really need to be, I think, and how we tried to do it, was on a case by case basis,” Haines said.
