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By Guy Page and Dave Soulia
A legislative advisory committee this morning debated ‘softening’ language about landlord’s concerns about just cause eviction.
In response to a worsening housing crisis, homelessness, and skyrocketing, the Legislature’s Landlord-Tenant Law Study Committee has produced a draft of its long-awaited report, dated Dec. 16. The draft report recommends legislation to approve just cause eviction, rent control (AKA ‘stablization), a rental registry, tenant right to counsel, and more funding for housing supports.
Chaired by South Burlington Democrat Emilie Krasnow, other members are Sen. Richard Westman (R-Lamoille), Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky (D/P Chittenden Central), Rep. Joseph Parsons (Newbury), and community members, stakeholders and state officials including Nora Aronds, Teri Corsones, Shaun Gilpin, Jean Murray and Angela Zaikowski.
The draft opens with a bullet pointed ‘tenants concerns’ side-side-by-side ‘landlords concerns’ (see graphic). A lengthy discussion was held over this draft recommendation:
“Because landlords will pass additional costs onto tenants, imposing additional costs runs the risk of further decreasing housing affordability.’
In other words: passing laws that make it harder or impossible to evict troublesome tenants will result in higher rent for the non-troublesome tenants.
Nevertheless, some committee members argued that the language should say “some landlords” rather than the inclusive language adopted in the rest of the document. In the end, the language was left unchanged.
Also, Vyhovsky questioned the use of the term ‘rent control.’ She said she preferred the more neutral term ‘rent stabilization.’ In the end, the committee opted for both – ‘rent control/stabilization.’
Westman recommended adding language to create landlord-tenant mediation. The suggestion was adopted by the rest of the committee.
These changes and others will included the final draft, which is likely to be approved by the committee and sent to the rest of the Legislature for consideration.
Report glosses over state’s own role in unaffordable housing – Ostensibly created to provide solutions to the challenges landlords and tenants face, the report devotes considerable attention to tenant protections while largely glossing over the structural issues driving housing unaffordability in Vermont. Most strikingly, it fails to critically examine the role of the state of Vermont itself in creating and perpetuating this crisis—a glaring omission given that the state commissioned this very report.
This report appears to embody the adage: “You can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” One aspect of reality ignored in Vermont’s housing crisis is that state-imposed regulations, taxes, fees, and building regulations increase rental occupancy and construction costs. These costs inevitably bubble down to renters, who feel the brunt of high property taxes passed along as rising rents, even if they don’t receive the bill directly.
Also, the report acknowledges that Vermont’s aging housing stock and rising construction costs exacerbate the crisis but avoids asking why these costs are so high.
The answer lies, at least in part, in state policies and excessive government spending. Vermont’s permitting processes, such as those governed by Act 250, impose significant delays and costs on housing development. Property taxes—some of the highest in the country—are driven by the state’s relentless spending growth. Landlords, forced to cover these escalating costs, have no choice but to pass them along to renters.
While tenants may believe landlords are the source of high rents—an idea encouraged by some politicians – it is also true that Vermont’s property tax system and regulatory burdens are major drivers. Yet, this cause is little-discussed in the report.
Parts of this news story were sourced from an article appearing today in Dave Soulia’s FYIVT.com.
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Categories: Housing
Now, who told everybody they did not have to pay rent???? SCAM DEMIC.
I wanted to hit the “Like” button in appreciation of the good reporting, but it might give the impression I like the job the committee is doing. It comes as no surprise that these characters refuse to criticize themselves or the past 30 years of socialist programs they’ve instituted. Record high homelessness? Non-government wages not keeping up with costs? “By gosh, let’s do more of the same and control all the property! We can appoint our party comrades to oversee all our new control programs! It’ll be great, we promise!”
Oversimplifying a bit here, but…
If you can’t afford to live somewhere, live somewhere else. Or improve yourself and get a better job.
If enough people move somewhere else, rents will drop.
And I guarantee that second part, because if no one is left to serve the elites, the elites will have to go without – and we know that ain’t happening. They enjoy life here in Vermont – America’s Playpen.
Regardless, aren’t there already more than enough laws on the books that dealt quite well with the tenant-landlord balance quite well up until (what Richard said above)?
We don’t need more, and the free market is a wonderful thing when the serfs exercise their power.
Used to be a landlord, until the state changed the tax law and started going after property owners. Then increased regulation and decreased my ability to kick out non payers. The state government is 100% at fault.
As a landlord for over 40 years I am frustrated that our leftist legislators are concerning themselves with more controls over landlords. The legislature needs to focus on cost of living in Vermont… how to reduce it and not lay more rules and regs on landlords in order to control them. Burlington has regulations and rules that micromanage landlords, is the state of Vermont going to overlay more on top of those landlords? Why is the state even involved with landlords? Whatever they do to us will only increase the cost which gets passed onto struggling renters. I do not need the state of Vermont imposing more rules and regs on me when I already “do the right thing” with tenants. Not everyone is a bad landlord just like not every legislator is a sock puppet. There are a lot of good people providing housing for renters and they follow local rules. Montpelier needs to get out of the business of trying to micromanage everything. Everything they touch costs us more. If I were
king I would direct Montpelier to FIX our school funding nightmare and not focus on another thing until its fixed. Instead, they are off trying to create more layers to extract more dollars from anyone they can think of. Everyone is trying to justify their existence under the golden dome and apparently if you can figure out how to tax us a little bit more, you’re a big hit.
Let me start by saying that I don’t own, or never will own a rental property, but I have been hired to repair these properties, when tenants move out, those who pay their rent on time and have a good reputation with the owner it’s an in and out, but those that are delinquent in their rent for multiple months, I assume subsidized by some form of Government funding well I’ll be making good money
on these repairs, as these people have no morals !!
Now, if these properties are substandard from the start, that’s another issue, then someone from the city or town needs to step in, from what I have seen these rentals are not five-star accommodations, but they are livable but pricey, and will only get worst if and when additional taxes are placed on the property owner that will end up
onto the renters, only those that pay …………………………………..
Constant grasp for the obvious. There was a time owning an apartment building or duplex was a good investment (real asset/real estate.) Scratch that notion, only the most wealthy and investment firms now own the most sizable portion of rental properties in the nation. An average building owner is under the jack boot of the State and City/Town – property taxes, income tax, business owner tax, insurance costs, and fees galore! Some registered with HUD to get federal welfare dollars, but that doesn’t cut it anymore in this Hellhole known as Vermont. Deferred maintainance and bare mininum utilities, if any, covered by rents that are far higher than an average mortgage payment. Yet, even a mortgage is not worth the paper it’s written on for a homeowner – no asset to ever be attained or retained there either. Collusion, fraud and racketeering – that is how the market roles all around these days by government/bankster/realtor design = they all get a cut under the table.
Oddly enough, our neighbors in Canada are having the exact same housing “crisis” issues. The Minister in charge of housing resigned yesterday, along with the Finance Minister. Ottawa is in chaos this morning after learning of their national deficit and the Castrotrudeau’s cabinet jumping off the Titanic.
All doors are shut against the homeless… true fact.
Unless you want to be degraded, stigmatized, gaslighted, and told you are worthless and certainly not worth keeping safe and housed in winter… yeah, then the options are there.
But if you do not want to be downtrodden by the system… you must learn to live without it… thems the choices…. where does that lead?
“not worth keeping safe and housed in winter” – Who is keeping us? Are we slaves or little pets that need to be “kept”. Are we worth keeping ourselves safe, or is someone else supposed to keep us? I’m not sure I want to be kept. If people are worth something I think I’ll do things to help people. When I do things that have value to other people, I will be rewarded with things that I can keep, which will allow me to make myself and others I care about safe. If you take things from me with violence, I will now be the one that needs to be kept. Lets not keep people, they have too much worth.
____
“Once there lived an ant and a grasshopper in a grassy meadow.
The ant
All day long the ant would work hard, collecting grains of wheat from the farmer’s field far away. She would hurry to the field every morning, as soon as it was light enough to see by, and toil back with a heavy grain of wheat balanced on her head. She would put the grain of wheat carefully away in her larder, and then hurry back to the field for another one. All day long she would work, without stop or rest, scurrying back and forth from the field, collecting the grains of wheat and storing them carefully in her larder.
The Grasshopper
The grasshopper would look at her and laugh. ‘Why do you work so hard, dear ant?’ he would say. ‘Come, rest awhile, listen to my song. Summer is here, the days are long and bright. Why waste the sunshine in labour and toil?’
The ant would ignore him, and head bent, would just hurry to the field a little faster. This would make the grasshopper laugh even louder. ‘What a silly little ant you are!’ he would call after her. ‘Come, come and dance with me! Forget about work! Enjoy the summer! Live a little!’ And the grasshopper would hop away across the meadow, singing and dancing merrily.
Summer faded into autumn, and autumn turned into winter. The sun was hardly seen, and the days were short and grey, the nights long and dark. It became freezing cold, and snow began to fall.
The grasshopper didn’t feel like singing any more. He was cold and hungry. He had nowhere to shelter from the snow, and nothing to eat. The meadow and the farmer’s field were covered in snow, and there was no food to be had. ‘Oh what shall I do? Where shall I go?’ wailed the grasshopper. Suddenly he remembered the ant. ‘Ah – I shall go to the ant and ask her for food and shelter!’ declared the grasshopper, perking up. So off he went to the ant’s house and knocked at her door. ‘Hello ant!’ he cried cheerfully. ‘Here I am, to sing for you, as I warm myself by your fire, while you get me some food from that larder of yours!’
The ant looked at the grasshopper and said, ‘All summer long I worked hard while you made fun of me, and sang and danced. You should have thought of winter then! Find somewhere else to sing, grasshopper! There is no warmth or food for you here!’ And the ant shut the door in the grasshopper’s face.”
https://www.longlongtimeago.com/once-upon-a-time/fables/from-aesop/the-ant-and-the-grasshopper/
More government regulation makes the problem worse. Government is the problem.