www.cumberlandlandlords.com
ALOC NEWS
January 4, 2003 Vol. 9, Issue 1
Every three years we receive a lovely little package
from the state of Maryland regarding the tri-annual assessment of our real
estate. This includes residential as well as commercial and rental
buildings. A review of two recent assessment notices seems to
indicate that we can expect to see our property taxes to increase
approximately 9 % or so over the next three years. This of course may vary
from property of property but we suspect that this reflects the average.
Depending on your taxes this could be as little as $ 10.00 per year, which
hardly makes it worth fighting. However, if you have never contested one of
these increases you might find it to be interesting to see our bureaucrats
at work. It seems so mystifying that we base a large part of the
taxes paid to fund local government on the value of real estate, which has
absolutely nothing to do with the cost of delivering government services.
In addition is also puzzling to see the program administered and run by the
state when they only collect a very little part of the proceeds. Certainly at some point it would be nice if our
government would come up with a better way to calculate and collect our
taxes based more on the actual delivery of services. For instance why
should a retired couple pay taxes higher than a younger couple with
children in the school system and a household that may be two to three
times larger than the retired couple? If you wish to appeal your new assessment you will need
to file it no later than February 10th. The appeal procedure is
spelled out on page 3 of the Assessment Notice. You are entitled to a free
copy of the worksheet for the property and a copy of the sales analysis for
the area. Regardless of whether you wan to make an appeal it might be
interesting to see how they arrive at their new assessment. You can also submit rental financial information, which
can be used in the assessment process, however the income potential is the
driving force not whether you actually make any money or not! Ain’t it
grand! We start off in January with Mary Jane Bonser from the
Allegany County Community Services Department. Mary Jane oversees the
various housing programs, including HUD Section 8 that are administered in
the County. In February we will have Denny McCormick, Public Works
Director for the City of Cumberland, who will fill us in on the latest
regarding garbage pickup, keeping your sidewalks clean and other services
provided by Cumberland’s public works departments. In March Chief Bobby Dick of the Cumberland Police
Department will again visit us to go over procedures and policies used by
his department when dealing in landlord tenant matters and will answer any
general questions regarding police matters in Cumberland. In April we hope to have a real estate appraiser
attend our meeting and in May we will have Tim Michaels, CPA, from Huber
Michaels. The MDE recently mailed out renewal notices to all
Maryland Landlords and if you have not yet received your packet you should
contact the MDE immediately. Failure to renew your registration can result
in fines! Property Management A new property
management company has contacted us about providing information to the membership
about their services. We have asked them to attend the January meeting to
make a short presentation after our regular speaker. We frequently
hear from some of our out of town owners that they would like to have a
local management company take care
of their rentals and unfortunately there are few firms to pick from. With
this in mind this may be an ideal opportunity, if you are interested in
turning over the day-to-day hassles of rental properties to professionals.
Members wishing more information can contact Ideal Property Management at
240-362-0275. 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 3-03
Assessments
Speakers
MDE
Registration
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
The Maryland Property Owners Network will meet in
Annapolis on Friday January 10th at the Maryland Board of
Realtors Office and ALOC President Jeff Hutter will be attending the
meeting as will Bill Russell from Frostburg. This should be a particularly
interesting meeting considering the state of the political climate in
Annapolis. Recent reports indicate that the state will be preoccupied
trying to get the budget straight without raising taxes. Add to this health
insurance woes and the gambling issue and it is easy to see it will not be
a pleasant legislative session. Complicating matters is the election of our
first Republican governor since the 1960’s. It is expected that we will see
a lot of new faces in the various departments and the effect on policies
and regulations is an unknown at this time. We are of course hoping for no changes regarding the
Lead Paint Program, but we can expect the Lead Paint gang to be up to their
usual tricks. Last year they tried to get the regulations made stricter and
in spite of their failure they will keep coming back. We will have a report
for the January meeting. The MDE is proposing to decrease the lead dust content
regarding dust wipe test. This is to conform with Federal standards that
will allow Maryland to continue to get Federal funding for lead paint
programs. The changes are as follows: a.
40 micrograms per square foot in dust collected from a
floor (was 200) b. 250
micrograms per square foot in dust collected from a window sill (was 500) c.
40 micrograms per square foot in dust collected from a
window well (was 800) It is the consensus of most landlords that it would be
difficult to argue against this change considering the potential loss of
funding when the state of Maryland has budget shortfalls. If we compare
these figures to actual dust test results it appears that most of us would
have little difficulty in meeting these new lower lead levels.
t
ALOC DUES for 2003 It is that time of year again when membership dues in
the amount of $ 40.00 will be
due. Your prompt payment will be
appreciated. A dues bill will be enclosed with member’s newsletter if their
payment is required. The dues cover the costs of our mailing and
correspondence, membership in the Maryland Property Owners Network,
telephone costs, costs associated with attending meetings in Annapolis,
development and reproduction of our leases and etc. 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. January 13, 2003 February 10, 2003 March 10,2003 April 14, 2003 May 12, 2003 June No Meeting July No Meeting Meetings are held at
the South Cumberland Library on Race and Seymour St. at 7 PM “The price of
greatness is responsibility.” Sir Winston S.
Churchill “We must accept
finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.” Martin Luther
King Jr. 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 ALOC Financial Report All members will find attached a one page
financial report that details our financial activities during the past
calendar year. Any members having questions can contact
Jeff Hutter or any Board members. 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