ALOC NEWS

December 6 , 2000

Associated Landlords of the Cumberland Area
ALOC Phone (301) 759-0530 P.O. Box 1867

Vol. 6, Issue 12

Rental Manager to pay $ 13,000

A Baltimore property management company accused of refusing to rent apartments to families with lead-poisoned children agreed to stop inquiring about potential tenant's medical histories and pay a $ 13,000 penalty to settle the matter .
As you screen potential tenants please keep in mind that if you wish to ask such questions you could find yourself with legal problems.

November Speakers

As mentioned in our attached minutes from the last meeting we had a nice presentation made by some local insurance people. Clearly we all need to carefully review our insurance policies, both home and rentals, to make sure that we have proper coverage. It was clear from listening to our speakers that it is easy to misunderstand the coverage we may have.

It would probably be advisable for all members to get together with their insurance agent to go over each policy that you have to make sure that you understand the limits of your coverage. In some cases you may wish to add options to increase your coverage. Considering what happened with the recent flooding on the West Side, we can't be too careful.

Access to Court Records

Recently in the newspaper an article described the possibility that access to court records could be severely restricted. The Court of Appeals is slated to act on the proposed policy in 2001.
House Speaker, Cas Taylor and Senate President Mike Miller are leading the legislature in opposing this proposal and we hope they can pull it off.
If we lose the right to access these records it could drastically affect everything from tenant eviction records to criminal cases -all of which can have a disastrous effect on the rental business, not to mention other business in general.

MDE Renewals

The new renewal fonns arriving in your mail contain some pretty tricky questions. In column IV you are asked " Any change in tenancy per unit?" We aren't sure, but this seems to be designed to catch somebody who moved in a new tenant, but didn't bother to get a lead paint inspection. They also want your insurance information again? Be careful !!

Lead Paint Courses

In our last newsletter we reported that Allegany College would be offering Lead Paint Maintenance and Supervisor on December 19-20,2001. We understand from talking with John Loff at the college that the course is nearly full with close to 30 enrollees. Ifby chance you were not able to get into this course another one will be scheduled sometime in February 2001.

Lead Regulations

Attached you will find a copy of a recent article ran in the Baltimore Sun that goes into detail about the lead paint law and the 50% rule that kicks in on February 24,2001.
If you have registered your rental units you have made it over the first hurdle. During the past five years you were required to have inspections and risk reduction treatments done at turnovers but existing tenants were essentially exempt. All you had to do was give them the lead pamphlets every 2 years. The bar has been raised for the next hurdle and it requires that at least 50 % of your rentals must have received the full risk reduction treatment with a visual inspection. Your other option is to pass the lead dust test requirements.

While the MDE has been reasonably content to go after
those property owners who have not registered you can bet their focus will soon change. At some point after February 24th they will certainly start checking the inspections papers for each owner to see if there have been any inspections and do they total 50 % of the property owners units. When all of this converges together we can expect the MDE to step up its enforcement efforts.

Landlords who are not prepared for this enforcement may find themselves receiving some pretty hefty fines.

Please keep in mind that if you have not received MDE approved training and a State License you cannot do any of the work required that would be visually inspected. If you
opt for dust wipes, training and licensing are not required. Of course the cost is higher for dust wipes and if your cleaning efforts are not thorough it can be an expensive option. Either way we are required to have a visual inspection or dust wipes perfonned at every turnover

We will discuss these items at our January meeting to answer questions the membership may have.

Maryland Property Owners Notes

The City of Curnberland Pennitting Review Committee has been meeting every few weeks at the Public Safety Building and though the progress is slow it appears that the City is getting the message that the City needs to be more business friendly. Generally the group feels that the City Inspectors need more time to work on building pennits and this may be accomplished by making some changes in the City Housing Code. It seems likely that we may see elimination of the City inspections on turnover and instead there may be some sort of random inspection plan, with advance notice. This idea is a win-win deal for everybody and we hope to see it take effect later in 200 I.

ALOC President, JeffHutter, has been appointed to the Chaim1anship of the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce
Legislative Committee. This Committee will kick off its activities with a Legislative Breakfast on December l5th at the Holiday Inn. After the session starts this Committee meets every week to review business related bills before the Maryland Senate and House ofDelegates. Members of the Committee will travel to Annapolis each Monday to attend a meeting of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce Legislative Committee where positions on business related bills are determined. This group winds down as the session enters its final phases in April and a wrap up breakfast is usually held in May.

Any members who have information, concerns or questions regarding either of these two groups should contact J et! Butter at 301- 777-2692 ext 137 (work) 7am -330 pm weekdays or at home other times 301-777-0379

Leases and other Documents

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 117-119 Valley 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, Stacy or Gary
Please note: We do not keep MDE or City Housing registration forms on hand.

ALOC Officers

J. Jeffrey Hutter President

Rose Selby Vice President

Stephanie Wharton Secretary

J. Jeffrey Hutter Treasurer

Board of Directors

Henry Holzshu
Ed Hedrick
Milt Sarver
Clarence Anderson