www.cumberlandlandlords.com
ALOC NEWS
October 5, 2003 Vol. 9, Issue 10
ALOC President sells
last Rental Property After nearly 20 years as a landlord, our President, Jeff
Hutter sold his last remaining rental property on Columbia Street on September
8, 2003. He has agreed to stay on as President and will soon be meeting
with Board members to work out the details. One of our other long time
members, Mary Reed, has also advised us she has sold her single rental unit
and will not be renewing her membership. Housing Study Allegany County has a consulting firm gathering
information about housing in the county. ALOC President Jeff Hutter attended one of the public
sessions and a few facts were gleaned from the presentation that the membership
might find interesting. Within
Cumberland we have 4089 rental units of which 1900 were built prior to
1939. The vacancy rate in Allegany County as a whole is 11%. The consulting firm conducting the study has already met
with four separate groups and some meetings with certain key individuals
connected to housing matters are in the works. The study should be
completed sometime in early 2004 and we will share the results with the
membership. Lead Paint Testing As explained in the attached newspaper articles the mandatory
testing of children is now required before entering the school system and
according to unofficial reports we have received the numbers of children
with elevated lead levels (greater than 10ugdL) is going up. With more kids being tested this seems
to be a logical conclusion. We will be meeting with Health Dept. officials in
October to make plans for the upcoming Lead Poisoning Seminar and we may
have more details. One of our aims from this meeting is to better acquaint
them with our end of the program and hopefully we will get some insight
into how their end of the program works. Keep in mind that all of the lead
information we have from the MDE is from 2001. The 2002 report is due out
any time and it will be interesting to see if the figures are further
declining! October Meeting Agenda One of the major problems we run into as Landlords is
collecting rent on a timely basis, going to court to get the rent and
ultimately having to evict a tenant. During the summer we have talked to
many members about the eviction process and this indicates it is again time
to go over the process. Another very misunderstood area is the handling of
security deposits. These two items are interconnected and lack of knowledge
about the law and procedures can result in monetary loss and or financial
penalties. Recent Newspaper Article
about Lead For those members who were unable to keep up with the
lead paint articles and letters during the past couple of months, attached
are copies of the newspaper items, letters to the editor by ALOC and the
Health Dept. and a copy of the letter mailed to us by the Health Dept. We will be soon meeting with these folks to set up a
Lead Poisoning Seminar during one of our regular meetings sometime after
the first of the year. We will keep you posted. The Price of Natural Gas As we have expected the cost of natural gas is expected
to rise again this winter and recent paperwork received from MX Energy
indicates the rate for Ccf will be $ 0.836 for the next 3 years. This
represents roughly a 25-30% increase over current rates. Be prepared to see
those gas bills go up when it turns cold
Baltimore POA
establishes Website The Baltimore Property Owners Association has started a
website which can be accessed at: http://www.baltimorepropertyowners.org.
It is still being fine-tuned but you may find it of interest. 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 3-04
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”
How to handle Security
Deposits
One of the largest areas of confusion for both Landlords
and Tenants are the rules, laws and procedures surrounding Security
Deposits. The short synopsis that follows cover the main points and you
will need to read the exact language in COMAR to get all of the details. Failure to exactly follow Maryland law
can result in treble damages (three times the Security Deposit) if the
Court finds you have unfairly withheld the refund of the deposit or
misapplied it to future rents and or inflated damage claims. Keep in mind
that the Judge has a wide discretion to decide these factors and they will
frequently find in favor of the Tenant if all of your documentation and
calculations are not exactly and professionally prepared. Upon receipt of any Security Deposit you need to issue
the Tenant a written receipt. If you use ALOC’s lease there is a receipt
built in. Keep in mind that there are financial penalties for not providing
a receipt that also explains the Security Deposit law. As the intended
purpose of the Deposit is to cover damages you cannot generally use this
money to cover future rents, though you can use it for past due rents. If
your new tenant doesn’t move in on the move in date you may still not have
any right to keep the Deposit. This will be particularly true if the rental
unit was not completely ready on the move in date as this is not their
fault. On the other hand if they change their mind it gets problematic.
While you may feel that you are entitled to keep all of the Deposit a Judge
would probably not agree as you really haven’t lost any rent considering
the Tenant never took possession and you are of course free to rent to
other parties. Another important aspect of the move in process is a
detailed listing/accounting for existing damages that the Tenant has a
right to receive from the Landlord. Without such a listing signed by all
parties, it can be difficult for a Judge to determine what damages may have
been pre-existing or occurred after the move in. Again ALOC has a form for
this, which solves the dilemma. Maryland law requires that you have Security Deposit
money in some sort of separate account and not commingled with other funds.
Many Landlords have a CD, in a sufficiently large enough amount, that will
cover all of their present and or future Security Deposits which doesn’t
require exact deposits and disbursements from a special account. To be continued next month
t
Landlord Tenant Handbook The Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc. publishes a comprehensive
Landlord-Tenant Handbook for a modest cost of $ 12.00 postpaid. We recommend that all members get a copy of this book,
as it will provide almost immediate answers to most of the landlord
questions that arise from time to time. Contact BNI at 1-800-487-6007 to
order a copy of their book (State of Maryland Edition). 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. October 13, 2003 November 10, 2003 December No Meeting January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 12, 2004 Meetings are held at
the South Cumberland Library on Race and Seymour St. at 7 PM The truth is
incontrovertible. Panic may resent it; ignorance may deride it; malice may
distort it, but there it is. Sir Winston S.
Churchill TWR
Communications 301-777-2692 9-30-03 TWR supplies quality high speed
Internet Access, both dialup and Wireless in the Tri-state area. TWR
provides other computer services including training, computer repairs,
networking and website hosting. If you have need of storage space check out
our self-storage facilities on Necessity St. 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 Marsh
Neilson & Sons General Contractors Replacement windows, doors,
painting, trained in Lead Abatement, Also roofing, porches and decks, plumbing and electrical
work. Lets us take care of your lead
problems! For more information call Rick 301-268-7712 Craig 301-689-6736 3-04 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