Council to consider law to license landlords, institute fines for nuisance tenants
To help cut down on problems with some of the residential renters in the City of Batavia, two council members are asking the council to consider a law that would license landlords and fine property owners who rent to nuisance tenants.
The proposal is on tonight's City Council agenda. The meeting begins at 7.
The proposal grew out of conversations between council members Brooks Hawley and Pier Cipollone and City Manager Jason Molino regarding problems in the Holland Avenue neighborhood.
Molino did some research and found that the Town of Niagara and the Town of Cheektowaga recently created a licensing scheme for landlords.
There are also fines for landlords if the police are called to a residence frequently.
Molino's memo on the law states, "It appears that this legislation attempts to hold landlords accountable for tenant behavior as well as provide easier methods for landlords to evict uncooperative tenants that are compromising the character of neighborhoods."
In Niagara, officials concluded that renting out residential rental property is a business and should be licensed like many other types of business.
Once licensed, officials will have a better paper trail on who the landlord of record is and then notify the landlord of potential problems.
Officials will track police calls to rental properties and three nuisance or criminal complaint calls in a year will result in a $50 fine; a fourth, $100; a fifth, $500 and each additional incident thereafter, $1,000 each.
The legislation in Niagara states that "residential rental properties may become a haven for various criminal or disruptive actives that can result in disorder in our community and affect the quality of life of others in the Town of Niagara."