www.cumberlandlandlords.com
ALOC NEWS
August 8, 2003 Vol. 9, Issue 9
Update on the HUD Leases For some months we have been working with the Cumberland
Housing Assistance Office, which handles HUD Section 8 subsidies, to get an
acceptable lease in place for our members to use. We were able to meet with
the City staff a few weeks ago and we are getting closer to a conclusion.
We have had to remove a number of sentences and or clauses from our
original lease that are in conflict with HUD regulations. Clarifications of
some sections required by Maryland law were worked out and the final
document is nearly ready. The lease has also been reformatted to fit on six (6)
pages of standard 8 ½” x 11” paper as requested by HUD. The final draft
will be turned over to the Housing Assistance office by mid August and
after their review it will be passed on to the City attorney and HUD for
their further review. We cannot predict when final approval will occur but
we are getting closer to the end! Understanding HUD
Section 8 When deciding to get involved with the Section 8 program
it is important that Landlords know the pros and cons of this program. The
obvious good points are on time rent payments and the ability to get a
reasonable rent. The down side is the often-chaotic application of HUD
regulations that seem to follow no logical pattern. One big problem is the rent abatement process. This
typically occurs due to the failure of the Landlord to make repairs on time
after regular inspections. This abatement procedure also can get very ugly
if the program rules are violated. For instance one of our members found
his rent would be retroactively abated going back 6 months or more as his
tenant was renting another unit at another location in Cumberland, which
violates the rules. While logically one would assume that the tenant is the
violator and should be penalized accordingly, the HUD folks felt
differently. Their solution was to deduct the 6 months or so rent from the
other HUD rental amounts to be paid to the Landlord. We feel that this is
wrong and we advised our member to take court action if the abatement
occurred. More details next month! Financial Report The below listed
figures reflect our financial picture for the period of January 1 to June
30, 2003. Income Member dues received $
2,160.00 Interest $ 3.19 Forms and Ad sales $ 247.25 Total $
2,410.44 MPON Dues $ 300.00 Library Donation $ 100.00 Newsletter, forms and etc. $
378.59 Other costs $ 580.52 Total $
1359.11 Balance $
1051.33 Balance carried forward from December 2002 $
3,455.14 Total Bank Bal. as of June 2003 $ 4,506.47 Speaker for September
Meeting Brian Held from the Cumberland YMCA will be our speaker
at the September 8th meeting. He will go over some of the programs
being introduced by the YMCA for the placement of homeless individuals and
families in their own housing instead of public shelters. Brian also serves on the Allegany County Board on
Homelessness as Secretary and is familiar with the many challenges of
coping with homelessness and housing problems in Allegany County. ALOC’s
President, Jeff Hutter also serves on this Board which meets frequently at
the County Office Building. Rental Property
Inspections Dust Wipe Tests/Visual
Inspections 301-777-1369 MDE: Certified Lead
Paint Visual Inspector HUD: Certified Lead
Sampling Technician 9-30-03 Lead Inspections
for Rental Housing Visual Inspections and
Dust Wipes 201 Massachusetts Ave. Cumberland, MD 21502 301-722-8328 3-04
Expenses
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”
Report on the Legislature,
MPON and etc.
The Maryland Property
Owners Network will meet in Annapolis on August 21st. ALOC will
be represented at this meeting where the primary topic of discussion will
be the increased yearly registration fees being charged for LLC’s by the
State of Maryland. As part of the new budget enacted this year many fees
were increased and this particular fee can dramatically increase costs for
certain Landlords. With the onslaught of lawsuits against Landlords,
particularly lead related problems, many Landlords elected to establish a separate
Limited Liability Company for each rental property. This in essence limits
liability to the real estate and or assets owned by the LLC. The result is
that Landlords with many rental properties have just as many LLC’s, each of
which must pay individual corporate registration fees to the State each
year. These yearly fees typically ran $ 100.00 or so per LLC, while
certainly not cheap, were manageable. You can imagine the shock felt by the
real estate community when these fees were increased fourfold to $ 400.00
per year per LLC. As an example we can take a Landlord who has 50 rental
properties and has been paying $ 5,000 per year in fees. With the new fees
this same Landlord finds himself paying $ 20,000 per year with no real way
of recouping this cost with increased rents. Keep in mind that Landlords are not the only ones
affected by this huge increase in fees. Many other types of businesses use
the LLC structure and they will also find themselves with no way to recover
the increased cost of the fees. We can also look forward to the Lead Paint Gang pushing
legislation to require proof of Lead Paint Program compliance when filing
summary ejectment papers to recover rent.
We will give you a report before the next meeting in September
t
Landlord Tenant Handbook The Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc. publishes a
comprehensive Landlord-Tenant Handbook for a modest cost of $ 12.00
postpaid. We recommend that all members get a copy of this book, as
it will provide almost immediate answers to most of the landlord questions
that arise from time to time. Contact BNI at 1-800-487-6007 to order a copy
of their book (State of Maryland Edition). J. Jeff J. Jeffrey Hutter President Carey Walker
Vice President Stephanie Wharton
Secretary J. Jeffrey Hutter
Treasurer Board of
Directors Clarence Anderson Steve Jenkins Bob Saville Bob Miles ALOC has available leases, rental applications and
tenant checklists for sale, at cost, to members. The cost for each item is
as follows: Lease @ $ 0.50
Rental Application @ $ 0.50
Move in Checklist @ $ 0.50 Lead Paint Brochures, both EPA and Maryland and
document receipt@ $2.50 for the set. Document Receipt for MDE and EPA brochures (disclosure)
@ $ 0.25 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. If you need mare than 5 of each item please call at least 24 hours in
advance so that we can make sure we have plenty on hand. Call 777-2692 ext
113 Monday through Friday and you can talk to Pam, Gary or Sean. Please
note: We do not keep MDE or City Housing registration forms on hand. September 8, 2003 October 13, 2003 November 10, 2003 December No Meeting January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 Meetings are held at
the South Cumberland Library on Race and Seymour St. at 7 PM I am not sure I
should have dared to start; but I am sure
that I should not have dared to stop. Sir Winston
Churchill I find that the
harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. Thomas Jefferson TWR
Communications 301-777-2692 9-30-03 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 Marsh
Neilson & Sons General Contractors Replacement windows, doors,
painting, trained in Lead Abatement, Also roofing, porches and decks, plumbing and electrical
work. Lets us take care of your lead
problems! For more information call Rick 301-268-7712 Craig 301-689-6736 3-04 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 called me, it’s easy. Mike Wright
301-729-5202 5-03
ALOC Officers
Leases and other Documents
Meeting Schedule
Thought for
the Month
PHONE 301-724-LEAD