[quote=billy ross;760782]City Council, in a rare act of stupidity, decided that at the incipience of every tenancy L & I should certify that the unit is habitable, a laudable goal but impossible to enforce unless L & I hired an army of inspectors to check every unit before a tenant moved in. To keep it managable, L & I, which was against this from the start given the logistics, created a self-certifying system, which defeated the entire purpose of the legislation. /quote]

Exactly! I remember when Mariano was pushing this legislation through.
It sounded reasonable--in a perfect world!
It was known from the start that L&I could NEVER keep up with these physical inspections. How many people move into apartments, condos or rental homes each month-throughout the city?
I forget what initially prompted Mariano for pushing this. Was it a building in his district that didn't pay water/gas/electric and the people were on the streets? I forget...

__________________
United we stand. Divided we fall.

Provide tenants with contact info for L&I and respond to complaints?

__________________
Welcome to Philadelphia. Here's how you can help us make our great city even better:

• Write to your state and local elected officials
• Report suspicious activity to the police department

But isn't that part of the problem? That some of these slumlords do NOT have renter's licenses?

Yes, I know the city "requires" landlords to have a renter's license. But does each property owner who rents a room, an apt., a house or condo actually have a license to rent?

__________________
United we stand. Divided we fall.

I'm afraid I posted prematurely -- that is, before actually reviewing the ordinance being discussed. I just read it quickly and, unless I missed something (entirely possible at this time of day), there is no requirement for an inspection by L&I at the inception of every tenancy.

So as far as everything I wrote goes: nevermind.

A good point. But how would any regulation affect these landlords? If they don't hold licenses, how likely are they to notify the city of a new tenancy? Or provide new tenants with written assurances that there are no violations against the property and that all code requirements are met?

I've represented indigent tenants on a pro bono basis in landlord tenant court. I'm certainly not opposed to legislation protecting tenants. I'd simply like it to be effective.

I think this is correct, too. The business of registering each lease with the City seems too preposterous. Much less sending a body to inspect.

Do you have any idea the volume of renters flowing in and out of apartment towers, rowhomes and duplexes when schools start up and end?

Just chalk it up to Dirtbag Mariano trying to look good before he took the swan dive.

__________________
WHYY pays their CEO $750,000 a year. So WHYY should I renew my membership? Seems they have no problems finding money and spending it unwisely.


And this is why you should donate to PACCA, not PETA:

In September, PETA made headlines in Vermont and across the nation for asking Ben & Jerry's ice cream to use human breast milk in their ice cream, instead of cow milk

I would assume the most efficient system would be to thoroughly follow up with all L&I complaints.

I would assume that if Landlord's knew L&I was serious, they would be less willing to let their properties get to that point.

Obviously there is a difference between a light that doesn't work and a collapsed staircase.

But if L&I gave orders to fix and any complaints that weren't not resolved in a certain time period could lead to full code audits, on top of leins placed on property, that would probably be more efficient that inspecting all properties.

__________________
Czar of the 26th Ward.

That is my point, exactly!

I guess in order to regulate the landlords & slumlords, you need to FIND them first.
I'm guessing most professional investors have the required licenses, etc.
But it's the slumlords that need to be tracked down.
Those that snub their nose at city license fees, business privledge tax, zoning, etc.

The legislation has good intentions. It never had the opportunity to have an effect on the slumlords..because it was never enforced.

How do you find the slumlords?

__________________
United we stand. Divided we fall.

When L&I hits a landlord with a violation, any attempt by the landlord to run to L&T Court with an eviction for a tenant gets rejected until they clear up the problem.

What's funny is that L&T clerks ask the landlord if they have any code violations up front or they are missing permits... but they check the database anyway so they can catch you in a lie [which is a big red flag with the hearing judge].

This is designed to protect you if you go into a rent strike against a landlord over something [talking about multiunits, here]. If you as a tenant discover the building code violation while in dispute with a landlord, guess what---you're shielded from an eviction action until the landlord fixes it. If you happen to also be striking over that that violation, more power to you. Big property management firms HATE, HATE HATE HATE this rule. But it is there for you and for your protection. My building was involved over such a rent strike over elevators getting stuck, no certificate of occupancy, and fire suppression system had not been completely installed... the PFD also raised big alarms with L&I since there was no fire system cert for the building and PFD had not even gotten a chance to inspect the work done on the fire safety system.

The tenants at the time though were mostly upset over the dead elevators and construction noise, and had a rent strike. Management company with the landlord moved to evict all the tenants from the building--one of the tenants reached out to a lawyer and did a quick search at the MSB and discovered building was still in permitting process and most weren't even applied for yet--so they contacted L&T and had all the eviction notices dropped, then the fire marshal told the building owner that the tenants would have to be evacuated. I am not sure of the events after that point--but I think Caplan made a deal with the City Law Department to quickly finish up construction and get the permits done pronto. It still cost him a bunch tenants since their first treat in a renovated building was a nightmare.

Story still up at City Paper: http://www.citypaper.net/articles/10...chestnut.shtml



Anyway, the problem is... L&I is patronage heavy and doesn't run as efficiently as it could be.

That's why the 311 system was asked to go up. I can tell you right now AFSCME will have a field day objecting to it.

OMG my performance is being tracked! No noes!!!!

__________________
WHYY pays their CEO $750,000 a year. So WHYY should I renew my membership? Seems they have no problems finding money and spending it unwisely.


And this is why you should donate to PACCA, not PETA:

In September, PETA made headlines in Vermont and across the nation for asking Ben & Jerry's ice cream to use human breast milk in their ice cream, instead of cow milk

I believe tenant law also says that if the landlord doesn't repair, you can repair it yourself and dock the cost from your rent.

__________________
Czar of the 26th Ward.