ALOC NEWS
| December 1, 2001 | Associated
Landlords of the Cumberland Area ALOC Phone (301) 759-0530 P.O. Box 1867 |
Vol. 7, Issue 12 |
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Upcoming Speakers At our November meeting we had arranged for Chief Bobby Dick from the Cumberland Police Department to be our speaker. Due to scheduling problems he was unable to attend, however he will be the speaker for our January meeting. In February we hope to have Bob Rider from the Cumberland Water Department and in March we are planning to have Bonnie Zembower from the District Court as our speaker. We are still working on final arrangements and we will keep you posted.
ALOC will not hold a meeting in December. Happy Holiday wishes to all of our membership! Blood Lead Levels Drop A recent article in the Cumberland Times-News reported that the number of children with blood lead poisoning dropped 36 percent from 1999 to 2000. State officials are touting the state's stepped-up efforts to stem the impact of the toxic paint ingredient as the reason for the decrease. While there certainly may be a little truth to this concept, they unfortunately fail to recognize that lead blood levels have been drooping continuously for years. This steady drop has more to do with the elimination of lead from gasoline than anything else. The interesting
thing about this article is the number of lead poisoning cases
for children under age 6, which are 353 for 2000 down from
555 in 1999. When you think about all of the costs associated
with this program such as training, license fees, lost work
hours, countless thousands spent in compliance and etc., you
have to wonder whether this program makes any economic sense?
I would love to see the total costs of this program both private
and government and then divide it by the number of poisoned
children! |
ANNUAL ALOC DUES 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. Your prompt dues payment will save us valuable time and resources. Thanks in advance for your renewal! MDE Annual Registration All Maryland rental
property owners need to be re-registering their properties
with the MDE by December 31st. Renewal papers are already
in the mail and any member who has not received them yet should
contact the MDE. Below are listed the phone numbers for the
MDE. Lead Hotline 410-631-4199 or 800-776-2706. Web address www.mde.state.md.us/health/lead/index.html For those wishing
to acquire their own MDE forms they can find them at this
site and download them accordingly.
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Miscellaneous
Items
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A California landlord lost a major mold case when a Sacramento jury awarded a local family more than $ 2.7 million. The family claimed the complex's ownership and management had ignored their repeated complaints regarding water intrusion and mold and had failed to properly maintain and repair their unit. The defense tried to argue that the family's reported health problems stemmed from allergies to cats. This is particularly frustrating for the rental industry as there are no federal or state standards specifying what level of mold exposure is harmful, and because some of the top state and federal health experts have stated publicly that there hasn't been enough research to positively link mold to many of the health problems the plaintiff and thousands of other have cited in their lawsuits. New York State's highest court ruled on November 15th that landlords could be liable for the lead paint poisoning of their tenants under certain circumstances. The New York Court of Appeals established a five-point test that tenants must meet to hold their landlords liable, including proof that the landlord knew that a young person was living in the apartment and proof that the landlord was aware that paint on the premises was peeling. They went on to say," We decline to impose a new duty on landlords to test for the existence of lead in leased properties based solely upon the general knowledge of the dangers of lead based paints in older homes". The court finished by stating that, it was acting cautiously since there is no statute in New York State explicitly imposing a duty on landlords to test or abate lead-based paint hazards. The Committee on Access to Court Records is active and meeting on a regular basis. Their last meeting was held in Baltimore and another is scheduled for Annapolis on December 12th. A summary of the meeting is available to any member who wishes a copy. Send a SASE to ALOC and we will send you a copy. |
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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: 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. |
ALOC
Officers
J. Jeffrey Hutter President Carey
Walker Vice President J. Jeffrey Hutter Treasurer Board of Directors
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Thoughts for the Month Courage is contagious.
When a brave person takes a stand, Billy Graham
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