Council discusses violations of rental laws

The City Council is examining the remedy of violations of the building code that have not been addressed for a long time

During the communications and correspondence portion of a recent meeting, Milford City Council was made aware of an issue facing a long-time resident and a rental property next door that had several building code violations. According to Councilman Michael Stewart, the resident contacted him and stated that she had received no help from the building inspector.

“A constituent reached out to me with some concerns about a property next door that used to be rented out. It’s now going to be gifted to the owner’s daughter, so it’s no longer rented out. But the concerns are about the timing, how long it’s been before the garbage has been sitting outside and the lawn hasn’t been mowed,” said Councilman Stewart. “She reached out to the building inspector. She said she hasn’t had a response from the building inspector. However, I have pictures and some emails and stuff that she sent. I’d like to get that to the city clerk and maybe we can get copies so the council can see it and the mayor knows what she’s talking about. There’s about 10 cans of motor oil, used oil, just sitting out there in the yard and stuff that hasn’t been cleaned up in about a month.”

Councillor Stewart further stated that there was also a problem with a tree hanging on the council’s property.

“There is a tree on the property that is leaning onto her property. It is concerning. I don’t know if our arborist has checked it out, but she had an arborist come out and he said the tree was dead inside and needed to be cut down,” said Councilman Stewart. “From what I understand, we had an arborist check it out and there are conflicting reports where the arborist for the City of Milford said the tree was not dead. There is ivy growing around the trunk that needs to be removed. I don’t know what to do with that, but I would like to help her because she has raised a lot of concerns. I think there are some valid concerns about the rent and lease laws and what we do about it.”

Mayor Todd Culotta stated that he understood that the City Manager had been in contact with the property owner, and Councilman Stewart confirmed this. He was grateful that Mark Whitfield had reached out to the constituent, but felt that some guidance should have been provided as to whether the tree could be trimmed back to the property line. Mayor Culotta confirmed that the property owner had the right to trim the tree back to the property line once it crossed the property line.

“I just wanted to stick by Mr. Stewart’s side. She reached out to me as well. I just wanted to address a few things. And we don’t want to miss anything because I know she’s going to listen and we wanted to get her opinion across so we’re going to address her concerns. The things she wants to see. Maybe something gets done,” said Councilwoman Nirmala Samaroo. “It’s the two rotten trees that she’s talking about and then some changes moving forward with leases and making them accountable to landlords and tenants. There were some things brought up about disposal of motor oil and rusted abandoned oil tanks and trash and debris but those were addressed today so thank you Mark for communicating with her and getting some of those things done.”

Councilwoman Samaroo continued.

“And I just had two things. And I’m going to close with the landlord. She’s just concerned about this happening and she doesn’t want it to happen to other residents. So that’s a big issue,” said Councilwoman Samaroo. “And then there was the concern about bugs, cockroaches and things like that taking over her house and she probably wants some kind of treatment to be put in place so that it doesn’t just happen to her but to the other neighbors as well.”

Whitfield suggested that the matter be referred to the Planning Committee as there were proposals regarding rental housing permits and possible changes to planning law. He felt that a points system should be considered that would prevent repetition of violations not only on this rental property but on others as well and could make both landlords and tenants more accountable.

“There were a number of issues raised that I’m working with Rob (Pierce, city planner) and his team to enforce. I understand the motor oil was removed today,” Whitfield said. “There’s also the issue with a tree, and then there was a request for assistance with removing items. Again, we can work with the building department on that, but again, there’s usually a fee, but we’re happy to go out and remove items, but we have to treat all property owners equally with regards to that removal.”

City Councilwoman Katrina Wilson said she had also heard from the voter.

“This has been going on for a very, very long time. So whatever we can do as a city to help this property owner who has lived there for 20 years, whatever we can do to help her, I would hope that you and the Planning and Zoning Board would try to do it. It’s been an uphill battle for many years, and she’s been a very loyal person to the City of Milford,” Councilwoman Wilson said. “She actually worked for the Milford Chronicle, so she’s been with us for years in all of our activities that we’ve done here for the City of Milford, and she’s feeling very overwhelmed and not getting timely answers from the department, which has her pretty upset. And I just wanted to let her know that we as a council and as a city are going to try to do our best to help her and her family, as we do for everybody. But because it’s taken so long, we want to get as much of this resolved as quickly as possible.”

City Councilor Jason James expressed concern that this has been going on for so long.

“I think the whole council, not just me, we’re solution-oriented, but I’m concerned that this has been going on for a long time, and we have rental inspections. I’ve been aggressively pushing for more frequent rental inspections. For more enforcement of building codes. That’s what we’ve gotten,” Councilman James said. “But I guess Mark and Mayor, I guess my request is that whoever the building code enforcement committee is, or whoever that body is, you reach out to them or round them up and say have a meeting sooner rather than later, and if there are goals that are easy to achieve and there are other things that can be recommended to building code enforcement for changes, we should do that sooner rather than later.”

Mayor Culotta and Whitfield agreed that this issue needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.

“When I hear the situation with the points system, I can’t think of anything that would be more efficient to level the playing field and hold everyone to the same rules. And it would also weed out some of the worst players who don’t maintain their properties until the city gets involved,” said Councilwoman Nadia Zychal. “If we can get some of these repeat offenders off our plate by not giving them rental licenses, which are a privilege, then they’re a privilege, not a right. If they don’t play by the basic rules that everyone else plays by, they’re not eligible for a renewed rental license. So the sooner we can cobble something together that gets that done, I think, the better.”

City Attorney David Rutt informed the council that the matter was being removed from the agenda and suggested that this be placed on a future agenda. Mayor Culotta explained that this was more of a training session for new council members to show them how the city can legally intervene and punish violations.

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