ALOC NEWS

May 7 , 2001

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

Vol. 7, Issue 5

Upcoming Speakers

At our meeting in September we will have Bob Rider from the Cumberland Water Department as our guest speaker. Bob will update us with information on new developments with the Water Department. We understand that a lot of improvements are in progress at the Lake Gordon filtration plant and he will bring us up to speed.

In June we will have Pat McCormick from First United on hand to make a presentation about the services his Bank offers. For those looking at mortgages for rentals or other commercial applications this will be a good learning experience.

More Lead Paint Training

Allegany College will be offering more Lead Paint Training course in June and July. These courses will be taught at the Center for Continuing Education. Most ALOC members should have received information on these courses in a recent flyer that was mailed out. Single day worker courses will be offered on June 1 and July 16, 2001. Supervisor courses, which require two days, will run June 1-2 and July 16-17.
This training is necessary if you wish to use the visual system of inspection and risk reduction. If you wish to use only dust wipe tests there are no present requirements for worker training.

Contact Jon Loff at 301-784-5341 or E-mail jloff@ac.cc.md.us for more details.

Gas and Electric Costs

Many of our members requested that ALOC contact our state officials regarding the cost of natural gas, problems getting through to gas companies on the phone and the possibility of electric problems similar to California. Cas Taylor responded to these two concerns at the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce's Legislative breakfast held at the Holiday Inn on April 18th.

Continued in next column

ALOC President Jeff Hutter, who is the Chamber's of Legislative Committee Chairman, conducted the meetings attended by approximately 100 people. Jeff specifically asked the Western Maryland Delegation about the gas and electric situation an dthere wasn't much of a response. The entire delegation was mailed the results of an Internet Poll run on TWR's HereInTown.Net service to allow them an opportunity to prepare answers.

Cas Taylor's response, which was given in written form, is attached to this newsletter. We don't believe we received the answers we were looking for, but we can't be certain that these elected officials could provide answers. Within the document the name of the PSC Chairman is listed along with website and telephone information. WE would urge all ALOC members to call, write and or E-mail all concerns regarding energy issues, particularly gas cost issues to the PSC and copy to our elected officials.

Criminal Background Checks

For those ALOC members wishing to conduct background checks you should be aware that there is a Maryland central registry of sexual offenders with limited access. Alfred Singer of the Baltimore POA advises us that he uses the firm listed below to run his checks and they may have access to this information.

Howard Levin, Property Owners Exchange, Inc.
6630 Baltimore National Pike
Baltimore, Maryland 21228
Telephone 410-719-0100

Some years back ALOC had Gary Lindner with Scotty's Investigations, Inc. attended an ALOC meeting and made a presentation regarding criminal background checks. He has a seperate division that performs these types of checks primarily for pre-employment screening. The price is reasonable and our rental application form should be acceptable if signed by the prospective tenant.

ALOC members wishing to contact Gary can reach him at 301-777-0232. If you call Scotty's please let them know that you found out about them through this article.

Maryland Property Owners Notes

The Maryland Property Owners Network met in Annapolis on April 16th at the Maryland board of Realtors office on Riva Road. Jeff Hutter from ALOC and Bill Ressell from Frostburg attended, as did representatives from Baltimore, Frederick and other areas. Alfred Singer ran through the status of numerous bills that have passed the House and or Senate and are waiting to be signed by the Governor. We will no attempt to get into great depth or include all bills at this time and members should check the state website and or contact their local Delegate or Senator if they need copies of the bills. Once the Governor finishes his bill signing we will have a comprehensive listing of the bills that affect us available for the membership.
SB 131 Bad Checks, the fee for bad checks will be allowed to increase from $25 to $35 and criminal penalties will be adjusted
SB 205 Antidiscrimination Act, this adds sexual preference to the list. May have little impact on housing, the workplace may be worse.
SB 486 Maryland Economic Development Corporation, this bill clarifies the ability of MEDCO to make loans, expanding the power of MEDCO to make certain investments and etc. This was hotly contested by some folks downstate who feel that this will hurt business. MEDCO was used to help fund some projects in Allegany County such as Rocky Gap.
HB 66 Smoke Detectors, this will require disclosure regarding AC powered smokes and their inability to work if the power is off.
HB 864 Expedited Eviction, this allows a landlord to give 14 days notice versus 30 days notice if there is a threat of imminent danger.
HB 1031 Tenant Holding Over, this clarifies in better terms what a tenant holding over is.
HB 1163 Lead Poisoning Program, this bill embodies suggestions by the Commission and MDE including--MDE given flexibility in imposing fines for failure to register (lower)-- Requires labs performing lead blood level tests to obtain info abou the tested child and report to MDE -- Requires that any exterior or intereior chipping, peeling, flaking paint to be corrected before a lead dust test can be conducted -- Allowsthe MDE to grant amnest from certain penalties. There are other provisions in the bill.
HB 1215 Rent Escrow Law, this bill would disallow a tenant with 3 prior judgements for unpaid rent in the immediately prior 12 months from establishing a rent escrow with the court.

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

Thought for the Month

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time--a tremendous whack.

Winston Churchill (date unknown)