By Guy Page
The Montpelier City Council will hold a public hearing January 24 on a charter change question that would prevent landlords from evicting tenants because their lease has expired.
The City Council has already decided the question will go before City voters at the annual meeting on March 4. If approved by voters, the charter change requires approval from the Legislature.
The ‘just cause’ charter change would allow eviction for (“including but not limited to”) failure to pay rent, violation of rental agreement, and failure to negotiate lease renewal in good faith. But evicted tenants would receive adequate notice and “reasonable” relocation expenses, and a probationary period after initial occupancy. Also, landlords couldn’t inflict “unreasonable” rent increases as de facto evictions.
The charter change explicitly protects tenants from facing eviction solely due to the expiration of their lease: “Such ordinance shall exclude from ‘just cause’ the expiration of a rental agreement as sole grounds for termination of tenancy.”
Small, owner-occupied rental buildings would be exempt.
Gov. Phil Scott vetoed Burlington’s municipal ‘just cause’ eviction charter change in 2022. The House failed to reach the 100-vote veto override threshold by only two votes. This year, following a 2022 election favorable to the Democratic supermajority, the House has overridden other gubernatorial vetoes with a dozen votes to spare.
Just cause eviction charter changes and legislation have been promoted by Rights and Democracy, a Progressive advocacy group.
The ballot question reads: ARTICLE 14. Shall the Charter of the City of Montpelier as amended, be further amended to give the City Council the power to provide by ordinance protections for residential tenants from evictions without “just cause” by adopting and adding a new section 301(b)9?” The specific language of the proposed charter change can be read here.
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Categories: Housing
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C-O-M-M-U-N-I-S-M. How are all you democrat voters liking it now?? Craving more? Keep voting for these radical leftists.
And evicted tenants are to receive “relocation expenses” from the landlords now as well?????? Should landlords pack their scofflaws a nice, boxed lunch too?? How do these raving lunatics in office come up with this stuff day after day, year after year??
The collective altered sense of reality in these lawmakers is astounding; but it must be remembered that this entire state has been occupied by genuine Communists/Marxists. A state-wide extermination campaign is in order without further delay.
You’re absolutely correct Kathleen. Most of the the current legislators are either oblivious to reality or love to play God. PLUS they likely get benefits from Washington communists to do these things to us.
You need to take polsci 101 again. You are using terms you don’t know the meaning of
Lame attempt, as always. Your comrades are no longer even attempting to mask their malevolent movement. Try to keep up. You must have missed your last Marxist Monthly Meeting.
Amazing that these people don’t understand that these crazy policies will have the exact opposite effect that they desire. With rules like this the number of people who will want to be new building owners/landlords will drop to about zero. How can this not exacerbate the housing shortage they complain about? Somehow there should be a test for policy makers and elected officials to see if any of them can identify second order consequences of any action at all. I bet most of them would fail the test. The rest of them are the evil ones who know full well that their policies will fail but they know that the failure itself will create more chaos and greater desire for governments to fix things.
So, there is no contract law? How can you add this extra expense without compensation, this is imminent domain of rental property, the state must pay. This will make rental housing even more difficult.
Clearly NONE of them own rental property.
What this will do is make the only rental properties…..GOVERNMENT OWNED.
Which is the plan all along.
Build Back Better
You will own nothing and be happy.
What will the VTGOP say and do on this item? UNREAL, ILLEGAL.
And this is why the LOVE DEMOCRACY….THEY CAN JUST VOTE AWAY YOUR PROPERTY RIGHTS WITH A MAJORITY VOTE, THIS IS WHY OUR FOUNDING FATHERS ABHORRED THE TERM AND NEVER PUT IT IN FOUNDING DOCUMENTS.
WE ARE A REPUBLIC, RULED BY LAWS YOU JUST CAN’T TAKE SH*T…
Can we make the town freeze our taxes?
How about the contractor freeze his rates?
How about the water and sewer bill?
Electricity and Fuel, can we freeze those expenses too?
They have ZERO understanding of running any business or operation and clearly are NOT qualified to run their own business, let alone a town or state business.
“Laboratories of democracy” is a phrase popularized by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in 1932.
“To stay experimentation in things social and economic is a grave responsibility. Denial of the right to experiment may be fraught with serious consequences to the nation. It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system (i.e., ‘state’s rights’) that a single courageous State (or municipality for that matter) may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.”
Burlington is already Vermont’s socialized ‘Petrie dish’ of collective governance, cultivating various social viruses for experimental purposes – mostly by the intent of omnipotent moral busybodies struggling to think well of themselves at the expense of others. Burlington, and its City Council, are proving to be excellent examples of how we should not govern. The adverse effect of its deviant behavior is already more than evident to most of us.
Why not let the Burlington City Council continue to demonstrate what we should not do? Or, should this tyranny of a majority be allowed to continue to harm the minority of citizens that disagree with the creation of this particular social virus? After all, if either faction disagrees, they can just ‘get out of Dodge’.
If this revision to rental contracts is beneficial to landlords and tenants, why not allow each landlord and tenant contract to specify the proposed governance on a lease-by-lease basis? Why not let ‘the marketplace’ show us the way? Just in case the collectivist’s cure, as most have been recently, is worse than the disease.
“Laboratories of democracy” – I was planning on making the same point. You nailed it. BVT has done a great job of exposing what ‘defunding the police’ looks like even on the scale of a city the size of Burlington.
As for the renters/voters in Montpelier, the costs of this policy will be placed on you over time as landlords recoup their losses by increasing rents. Be careful what you vote for as you are likely to get it. So few people actually understand what they are voting for in the big picture.
many years ago i was a land lord/// had apartments/// never again///
k. j. g. state wide extermination campaign/// does that mean /// the judge will now rule the state///
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants: Thomas Jefferson, founding father of the USA. And we are the judges as we are a nation of, by, and for the people. Whatever it takes to restore this Constitutional Republic must be done including, but not limited to, Article 111.
Kathleen, since this is the second time you’ve advocated for violence, let me ask you. Who is coming for the leftists? You’re outnumbered about 8:1 in this state for starters. You going to get out from behind your computer and do it yourself? Come to my house lol.
Ask punkjazzz told you before, you have your terms confused. It’s socialism that allows you to sit behind your computer and spew hate while contributing nothing to society.
If I didn’t know any better I’d think this was Trumps burner account sounding all angry and confused lol
Who is coming for leftists, as we are outnumbered 8:1? Those of us who legally own firearms, as we know your leftists do not.
This Idea really makes me want to be a landlord
Why stop there? How about the State can take no action on citizens who fail to pay their taxes? Seems like a fair trade…
I used to be a landlord in Burlington. Landlords in Burlington have faced the same changes the Montpelier landlords are facing. Not allowing eviction with proper notice at the end of the lease effectively removes that property from the owner’s control and gives that unearned power to the tenant.
I was lucky. I was able to take advantage of the recent housing boom and I sold my rental property for an enormous profit to a flipper, who in turn sold at a profit to a young couple, taking that house off the rental market permanently.
The lesson here? If you can’t find rental housing in Burlington, thank a Progressive and/or a Democrat for making it virtually impossible for a landlord to control his own property.
Just what we need—another way to clog the courts. When a landlord has to prove “just cause” to effect an eviction, all the tenant has to do is deny the allegations, and it will be at least two years before the case comes to trial. So who wants to be a landlord?
All this is, liberals wanting more control…………………..and we’ll let it happen !!
Wake up people, you’re just a pawn!
HOLD THE PHONE!
I doubt there is really a housing shortage in Vermont.
I’m sure many would like/ need the additional income from renting a property.
Who would want to provide/ rent a house or unit with all the recurring expenses to anyone who can ignore the lease, damage the unit, sell drugs, not pay the rent. I mean it’s your property and if someones there you don’t want you should be able to get them to leave.
One might believe that such would be the case, but NOT here on Planet Bolshevik!
It is like living in a bad episode of the Outer Limits, what these unwoke people come up with.
It makes me wonder if they are really non human… generated by some twisted AI inventor, run amok.
They sure act like it, but if this assessment is true, the inventor forgot to add one thing.
COMMON SENSE!
Chris, Since I’m originally from NYC & live in a right-to-carry state – I’d personally NOT be inclined to believe that the likes of any Communist could ever begin to intimidate me with their very feeble attempts playin’ at some highly laughable “tough guy” routine. And your odds are forthwith faulty – as leftists proclaim to refuse to align themselves with the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution. Therein lies the Constitutional Conservatives advantage!
Since both your (and Mr. Punk’s) cowardice prevents you from identifying yourself & therefore it prohibits me from “coming to your house”, as if I would ever wish to (LOL) – I’ll simply repeat our great nation’s Founding Father’s words:
THE TREE OF LIBERTY MUST BE REFRESHED FROM TIME TO TIME WITH THE BLOOD OF PATRIOTS AND TYRANTS. And to that effect, Article 111 contained within the US Constitution should be utilized at every necessity in order to stop the overthrow of this Constitutional Republic inspired, initiated, and ignited by anyone found to be acting as a traitor against it whether here in Vermont or over on the left coast.
Want me to state it again? Or feel free instead to read all about Constitutional law yourself at your local library; perhaps during the next scheduled drag queen story hour — are you good at multi-tasking?
BTW Chris,
How does reciting portions of the verbiage from the great Thomas Jefferson – OR portions of the US Constitution constitute “spewing hate” in your mind?
If I didn’t know any better, I would think you were “edeculcated” at either Middlebury or UVM or Bennington college. Sadly, no one shall ever know as you possess neither the gumption or the courage to use your proper name as most others gladly do on here. LOL.
BTW, I trust your gig at trying to earn some kind of living isn’t in theatre…….your attempt to sound tough wouldn’t likely even merit an audition.
Spare me your insincerity, because we both know you’re a keyboard warrior. I don’t use my real name as I told you before because unlike you I have an actual career and responsibilities. Someone has to pay for you to make idle threats all day
More laughable blather from a leftist wannabe thug (from VT no less….that’s truly laughable) who now proclaims they simply cannot declare their identity because….wait for it….they have “responsibilities”! Though I imagine re-reading more chapters from your dogeared copy of “Rules For Radicals” or “The State and Revolution” could be construed as a responsibility to a socialist, every conservative on VDC holds gainful employment, has personal & familial responsibilities, and still remains tenacious and fearless enough to assign their names to the patriotic platforms they profess and commit to. So next time you threaten another poster, try so without your typical safe-space anonymity, “Chris”.
It’s an interesting situation.
How is it that the responsible people are unable to voice their opinions for fear of their career? This is complete widespread across the state, due to the well-known cancel culture, we don’t crucify people in Vermont and put them up along I89 for all to see, no we don’t do that, we are more sophisticated than that.
We ruin their careers and publicly shame them across the state on propaganda networks hiding as press. If you are a state employee, you risk loss of retirement and ever being hired again.
And this is how governments whom wish to control the populace from doing what they know is right, just and fair, from ever speaking out.
This is how the medical community is totally controlled by Big Pharma and the Jack boots at the WHO for medical experimentations. For some reason the recent covid episode comes to mind. Don’t fall in line, we’ll arrest you, don’t keep that gym open, wear that mask……
When we submit to the wrong spirit, these are the results we get. When we submit to the higher spirit, we get Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, etc…
From the fruit in our state, it’s pretty clear we are eating from the wrong tree. Results seldom vary, unlike stock picks.
if this passes who in their right mind would become a landlord. I would imagine this will cause many people to opt out of renting their properties out
Being a landlord is a business. When I owned an apartment house in Montpelier, I had a tenant who moved onto my only freshly renovated apartment. She quickly stopped paying rent, stopped carrying her family’s trash out to the cans provided for collection and removal (resulting in rodents), and finally flushed a disposable diaper which plugged up the works . My only tool as a landlord was to do a “no cause” eviction which allowed me to legally regain control of my property (in theory) by providing the tenant 60-day legal delivery of notice that would start counting at the beginning of the next month’s rental. Even though I had many reasons to initiate eviction, by providing her no reason for the eviction, she had nothing to appeal. She didn’t leave, but I did get a court hearing expedited because there was nothing for her to appeal. The hearing at least required that she pay her rent into court so I could hopefully, eventually collect her rent. She moved out after 9 months because her apt was a yucky mess. Her next landlord didn’t call me for a reference, even though she provided him with my contact information. I heard she did the same thing to him.
love these comments/// like filling a plastic jug full of gas and throwing it up in the air and watch it hit the ground/// when will it explode/////////////
Sec. 1. PURPOSE
This proposal would amend the Constitution of the State of Vermont to
clarify that slavery and indentured servitude in any form are prohibited.
Sec. 2. Article 1 of Chapter I of the Vermont Constitution is amended to read:
Article 1. [All persons born free; their natural rights; slavery and indentured
servitude prohibited]
That all persons are born equally free and independent, and have certain
natural, inherent, and unalienable rights, amongst which are the enjoying and
defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and
pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety; therefore
slavery and indentured servitude in any form are prohibited.
I find it interesting the Vermont Legislature and City Councils are running roughshod over the People and legislate (or paper over) Federal laws, Federal rules and regs, State laws, and established case law. Lawfare warfare indeed!
Rental income pays for property taxes and public utilities (water and sewer) to sustain the building, the tenants, and compliance. Forcing a property owner to suffer financial loss of rental income or incure lawfare expenses likely results in the City won’t get paid either. Then, the City can incure additional costs and expenses to enforce payment that they forced to be elminated, hence increasing the tax burden on the rest of the property owners. Brilliant!
This legislation just forces us (property owners) to take/keep our potential rentals off the market. When my husband and I couldn’t afford our home state, we moved to the ‘hinterlands’ of Vermont. We didn’t buy nice cars, eat out, buy clothes, take trips- we SAVED every cent until we had a small down payment for our first home- a total project. We worked our fingers to the bone to rehab it and make it beautifulIt, while my husband was pulling 80 hour weeks with a long commute- and I was juggling the house, kids and my own job. It took us years to pay off the mortgage and a lot of sacrifices- but anyone willing to work hard could do what we did. Why on earth should anyone tell us what we can/can’t do with it now? Why is there a housing shortage? Because of legislation like this. Well intentioned idiocy.
Back in the late 80’s I brought a house in Hardwick,and moved back from Europe where I had worked for DOD then started importing American products into the European marketplace. I had a lot of fixing up to do,that I did, to make it livable, then as soon as we were installed, I went to DC for a few years to serve the CIC at that time, so the place was empty, and a neighbor looked after the property.After DC we moved back to Europe where I started a trading company developing niche markets for American products .One day ,after 10 years, someone wanted to rent our house with the intent to buy so I agreed. She moved in and I never got one penny out of her, and it cost me 7K, and much time to get her out of the house, which she destroyed so the courts awarded me a lot of money but she was broke so I got screwed again, so I sold it at a big loss…all as a result of progressive leftist policies.
Vote those bums out of office…Vote GOP and team Trump!
Vermont Republicans voted for these policies by having unelectable candidates, pathetic messaging, and ignoring the majority of Vermont voters.
Remember, stand for something or stand for nothing.
Now you’re on your knees at the mercy and beholden to the people you helped elect.
Going from irrational to irrelevance.
Hate to break it to you, the Vermont GOP has NO impact on presidential elections.
Any Vermont Republican candidate running on Vermont hated Trump’s coattails is finished before they start. Ask Malloy who ran on Trump’s coattails, he basically got the same percentage of votes as Liam Madden.
In the unlikely event of a Trump presidency, you can bet the Vermont super majority, you helped vote in, is ready to write and pass legislation that will nullify anything he puts in place.
Focus on what you can affect if you love Vermont unless of course, you want to be totally irrelevant.
I agree with you Tom.
Write a provision in the lease that says that the rent doubles at the end of the lease unless a new lease is entered into.