www.cumberlandlandlords.com
ALOC NEWS
April 1, 2002 Vol. 8, Issue 4
In April we have arranged for Bonnie Zembower from the
District Court to be our speaker. There have been a number of minor changes
with the forms and Bonnie will be prepared to update the members
accordingly. The eviction process is one of the most common items that
Landlords will encounter and familiarity with it is a must. This will be a
good opportunity to ask questions of the people who process your court papers.
Please keep in mind that Bonnie cannot give any legal advise. Election of Offices and
Directors It has been a long time since we have had any formal
elections especially those regarding our Directors. We discussed this
briefly at our March meeting and during April-May-June we need to start
working on getting a nominating committee together to see what we can do.
It would probably be possible to have elections in June or July at the
latest. Any persons interested in serving should contact Jeff Hutter or
Carey Walker. In approximately 4 years we will reach the 10- year mark
for the Lead Paint Program and this may very well trigger a new round of
public hearing and or commissions. Obviously if the number of lead poisoned
children continues to decline it may prove to be difficult for the Lead
Paint Gang to make much of an argument, but they have proven to be
formidable opponents. Keep in mind that when the 10- year mark is reached 100
% of all rentals must have current inspection papers showing their
compliance with the visual or dust test requirements. We can certainly
expect much more stringent rules if things run as they have in the past.
The major item of concern we can deduce from listening to the advocates is
the replacement of windows and sills. It would be prudent for all of us to
put the replacement of our old windows on the front burner for the next 4
years. With this out of the way we
may well be in a good position if the rules get harsher! Every December membership dues notices are sent to all
members with payment due in January. For those new members who recently
joined and paid for 2002 there should be no dues notice attached. Your dues
cover the cost of getting the newsletters out, advertising spots in the
newspapers and radios, mileage costs associated with attendance at Maryland
Property Owners meetings in Annapolis, reproduction of ALOC forms and
miscellaneous administrative costs. With a cost of less than 11 cents per
day this truly represents a bargain for our members. If you have not yet paid your 2002 dues please do
so as soon as possible. During April we will be culling our membership list
of unpaid members, which can mean missed newsletter and other valuable
information! We have again received complaints from our members
regarding the City of Cumberland’s garbage billing. Specifically it
involves the over billing of the quarterly fee which ranges from $ 8.70 per
quarter for a single residence to $ 16.20 for multiple units. As previously
reported we had cases where the $ 16.20 rate was being billed to some
single apartment units with their own water meters because the property was
listed on the tax roles as a commercial unit. Regardless of whether it is
designated as commercial or residential a single apartment/house unit with
a separate meter should only pay the $ 8.70 rate. The recent complaint from a member was somewhat
different and involved a charge in excess of the amounts indicated above.
She tried to get some answers at the City Water Dept. at City Hall and ran
into the same problems we have all had, they can’t do anything. We advised
our member to contact Mayor Fiedler in writing regarding the matter as we
have done in the past. It is unfortunate that the City has not seen fit to
train their clerks better, but that’s the way it is. Rental Property
Inspections Dust Wipe Tests/Visual
Inspections 301-777-1369 MDE: Certified Lead
Paint Visual Inspector HUD: Certified Lead
Sampling Technician 9-30-02 Lead Inspections
for Rental Housing Visual Inspections and
Dust Wipes 201 Massachusetts Ave. Cumberland, MD 21502 301-722-8328 3-03
Upcoming
Speakers
Things to
Think About
ANNUAL ALOC
DUES
Cumberland
Garbage Bills
Richard Bonig
Carey Walker
Lead
Abatement - Lead Risk Reduction Rental
Property Maintenance Contractor Telephone
301-729-1086 FAX
301-729-4801 - Pager 301-546-0221 3-30
/ 9-30 VISUAL INSPECTOR MDE
Inspections Lead Dust Wipes LEAD PAINT
SUPERVISOR Telephone/FAX: 301-729-2994 1-30
Highland
Enterprises LLC
Robert Saville
“Excellent Rates”
Miscellaneous Items
The Demise of HB 1154 The latest bill, HB 1154, submitted by the Lead Paint
Gang had its hearing on March 14th in Annapolis and over 35
people were on hand to testify. On the Landlords side we had a very large
group representing Landlords from Cumberland, Baltimore, the Eastern Shore,
Annapolis as well as the metro areas around Baltimore and Washington. The
Opposition had on hand all kinds of heavy weights starting with Kweisi
Mfume (we are guessing on the spelling), the former Congressman and now
head of the NAACP, doctors, parents with lead poisoned children, various
advocate groups and of course our favorite Ruth Ann from the Coalition. The arguments were convincing from all sides but the
numbers were found wanting. When you consider that there were only 355 or
so case of lead poisoning above the limit compare to over 550 a year ago it
is hard for any logical person to understand the cost-benefit involved.
This was clearly stated by Bob Enten, the lobbyist for Baltimore who went
on to say that the cost of compliance could cost Maryland Landlords
possibly an additional $ 32,000,000. In the course of our presentations
many arguments were made and Cumberland was specifically mentioned
regarding the problems with Historic areas. We made sure that they knew how
difficult of a problem it would be to replace windows not to mention the
cost of having special wooden windows built to meet the standards. Another
Delegate was concerned about the economic aspects of such a large change in
the program and we also addressed that in our presentations. The hearing
was very well run under the tight time controls of Chairman Hurson and we
were all done by 4 PM. The good news is that the Committee resoundingly
dumped this bill down the crapper, where it belongs. They needed 12 votes
to get the bill to the floor for a full House vote and it only received 6.
The bad news is, it will probably be back next year when we have some new
Legislators. Oh well, for now chalk one up for the good guys!
Ann
The Leases and other forms have been upgraded to reflect
Law changes made in recent years and are available now. ALOC has available leases, rental applications and
tenant checklists for sale, at cost, to members. The cost for each item is
as follows: Lease @ $ 0.25
Rental Application @ $ 0.20
Move in Checklist @ $ 0.20 Lead Paint Brochures, both EPA and Maryland @ $
1.50 for the pair. Document Receipt for MDE and EPA brochures (disclosure)
@ $ 0.15 These forms are kept at Jeff Hutter's office, TWR Comm.
at 549 N. Centre Street. Any paid member can stop by and pick up whatever
they need, however we ask that you call first with your order so that the
forms can be ready and waiting for you. Please call at
least 24 hours in advance as these are made to order. When you call 777-2692 ext 113, you can talk to Pam,
Gary or Sean Please note: We do not keep MDE or City Housing
registration forms on hand. J. Jeff J. Jeffrey Hutter President Carey Walker
Vice President Stephanie Wharton
Secretary J. Jeffrey Hutter
Treasurer Board of Directors Ed Hedrick Milt Sarver Clarence Anderson “My son, observe
the postage stamp! Its usefulness depends upon its ability to stick to one thing until it gets
there. Henry Wheeler
Shaw Big shots are only little shots who keep
shooting. Christopher
Morley April 8, 2002 May 13, 2002 June 10, 2002 July 8, 2002 August NO Meeting September 9, 2002 October 14, 2002 Meetings are held at
the South Cumberland Library on Race and Seymour St. at 7 PM TWR
Communications 301-777-2692 9-30-02 The leading supplier of quality
high speed Internet Access in Allegany-Garrett-Washington Counties and
surrounding areas of West Virginia using K56 Flex modems. TWR provides
other computer services including training, computer repairs, networking,
website hosting and Internet advertising. TWR is an agent for Cellular
One, operates a wide area network with wide area paging and mobile 2-way
radio. Check us out at twr@hereintown.net Landlord
Helpers of Western Maryland PO Box 1697 Cumberland, MD
21501 301-724-9110
Fax 301-724-2647 Mary
Miltenberger, Manager Lead Paint
Services Instruction in
requirements, Analysis of units, Supervision of work site, Inspections, Evaluation before
you buy. Call us for all of your lead
paint concerns. 3-02 A-1 Inspections, Inc. PRE-PURCHASE/PRE-SETTLEMENT INSPECTIONS RESIDENTIAL
AND COMMERCIAL LEAD INSPECTIONS 301-724-5323 9-30 9-30 Credit Bureau, Inc. We have been in the
business of building databases for over 50 years. Let us build one for you!
For those of you contributing rental history, thank you. For those who
haven’t call me, it’s easy. Mike Wright
301-729-5202 5-02
Leases and other Documents
ALOC Officers
Thoughts for
the Month
Meeting Schedule
PHONE 301-724-LEAD