ALOC NEWS

HUD Lease Approval

After what seems to be forever we have received final approval on our revised lease, subject to some minor changes. The finishing touches will be made and presented at the February meeting. The changes involve clarification of the date of final inspection when a tenant leaves and elimination of language that treats other charges or utilities paid by the owner and charges to the tenant as additional rent. These changes are consistent with the normal provisions of previous HUD leases.

Keep in mind that this lease will be printed on regular 8 ½ x 11 paper and will be single sided. This format is easier to handle for the city and is probably the case for many of our members. Once completed this format will then be used for a revamping of our lease towards larger print and regular sized paper. We expect to have copies available for sale by mid February or so. The exact cost may be a little higher due to the extra paper required.

Upcoming Speakers

Our speaker for February will be Mary Jane Bonser from Allegany County Community Services to update us on the many programs they have, including funding for lead abatement work. For March we will have the City of Cumberland Housing Inspectors Dave Cox and or Shawn Llewellyn attending. April and May are still being worked on, but we will try to bring in some new faces. Look for updates on this schedule in the next newsletter.

MPON Meeting

The first Maryland Property Owners meeting of the year will be held in Annapolis on February 5th and ALOC President, Jeff Hutter, will attend. We expect to hear what new bills have been introduced and we will bring that information to the next meeting. As we have mentioned earlier this year we certainly expect some of the same bills to come back with a vengeance this year. This will probably include a bill to prevent court action to obtain back rent unless you can prove compliance with the lead regulations/program.

MDE 2002 Report

As we further examine this report some interesting items rise to the surface. Last month we showed figures from the report that placed Allegany County in roughly 8th place in the state with lead poisoning cases. On the surface this would seem to leave a lot of other counties with much lower poisoning figures, but this is an illusion. If we look at testing rates for some of these counties listed below we can theorize that their lead poisoning rates would rise if their level of testing were increased to the 25.6 % level in Allegany County:

COUNTY	LEAD TESTING %	LEAD POISON %	WHAT % COULD BE
Carroll	8.2 %	0.1 %	0.3 %
Howard	8.1 %	0.1 %	0.3 %
Frederick	9.1 %	0.1 %	0.8 %
Harford	12 %	0.1 %	0.21 %
Cecil	14.3 %	0.2 %	0.36 %
Queen Anne	14.4 %	0.2 %	0.36 %
Calvert	14.4 %	0.2 %	0.36 %

Keep in mind that these are unscientific projections and do not reflect the actual pre 1950
property in each county, however it does bring some interesting thoughts to mind!!

If all statewide lead testing was done at the 25 % level performed in Allegany County it is certainly possible that our County would drop from 8th place in the state to below 14-15th place. Over the next year or two as the testing levels rise across the state it will be interesting to see where Allegany County places within Maryland's 24 county-city testing areas.

The bad news is that this increased testing and theoretical increases in lead poisoning in other counties of Maryland could cause a spike up in the elevated blood lead levels as well as children with lead poisoning. Keep in mind that we do expect a concerted effort to be made by the lead advocates to have the current blood lead levels lowered. This along with increased testing levels could make it difficult for us as we approach the 10-year anniversary of the Lead Poisoning Program.

HOW TO HANDLE SECURITY DEPOSITS PART V

In last month's installment in this series we had the tenant moved out, inspection performed and the security deposit and or damage report was being sent to the tenant. In most cases this will conclude the matter, however don't be surprised to get a letter or phone call requesting a full refund of the deposit. You may even hear from a lawyer or receive court documents as the tenant is contesting your handling of the security deposit. How can we avoid this possibility? Below are some final tips:

1. Use a written checklist for move in and move out to document existing damages and tenant damages and make sure it signed by all parties at move in and move out. Be thorough, but fair, with the inspections and base any damage withholding solely on the damages listed on the checklist, actual unpaid utilities and or rent.
2. If you decide to withhold for rent due after the tenant vacated (no 30 day notice or breach of a lease) keep in mind that the courts will generally not go beyond one month and will expect you to show positive proof that you tried to rent the unit immediately to mitigate the loss. Ads in the newspaper, with dates, are your best proof.
3. You can't collect rent twice. If you move in a new tenant within a matter of days after the previous tenant leaves you are only entitled to the prorated portion of the rent for the vacant time period.
4. Keep complete and detailed records of how the transaction was handled. Keep copies in your permanent files in case of future problems.
5. If you have extensive damages and wish to go to court to recover keep in mind that this can be expensive and involved. Typically many tenants will seek out Legal Aid support forcing you to hire a lawyer, which may increase the cost of your action and may not guarantee a positive result. You also need to be sure your records are immaculate and your actions have all been within the law. If you missed any inspections or weren't properly registered, a good attorney will ferret out this information and use it to have your case thrown out and may even seek other damages. Be Prepared!

Hopefully this short series about Security Deposits has been helpful to our members!