Landlords want destructive tenants to be held accountable
Owners tell Schenectady vindictive renters can ruin their livelihoods
They spoke of cement poured down sinks, holes punched in walls, flooded basements and electrical wiring ripped from sockets.
One after another, landlords and property managers shared horror stories with the City Council last week, painting portraits of vindictive tenants engaged in deliberate destruction of their properties.
“Tenants can do whatever they want to do with no consequence,” Dandeago Budhoo said. “The issue was something we faced even before the pandemic but proceeded to get worse during the pandemic.”
Multiple tenants have caused tens of thousands of dollars in damages since the onset of the public health crisis, said Budhoo, who alongside his wife Mena has rented out properties in the city for nearly 20 years.
He and about a dozen other landlords who spoke out, many on the verge of tears, contend they’re powerless to stop the destruction.
And it was only in mid-january that they could proceed with the evictions after the end of a statewide moratorium they contend bled them dry.
Now grappling with skyrocketing back rent and trashed rental units, landlords are appealing to the city to tighten up police response while reining in what they perceive to be an “oppressive” code enforcement bureau that dings them for minor violations despite the newfound pressures.
“This can be a significant hardship for a small rental business like myself,” said Hemant Thakoordial, himself a former city codes inspector.
Thakoordial is among those who want the city’s Code Enforcement Bureau to relax some of its policies, including mandatory inspections every time a
unit gets a new tenant. Others said they shouldn’t be fined for minor violations like loose handrails or litter on the sidewalk.
Others spoke of tenants trashing the units and then calling codes to report the very same violations as a way to penalize them.
“This is a blatant injustice that must be addressed,” said Harline Andrus, a real estate agent.
Many say they’re trying to sell their properties and are discouraging others from investing in the city.
Chief Building Inspector Christopher Lunn said he sympathizes with their plight.
Yet the city cannot control the actions of an individual that makes a conscious decision to destroy someone’s property, he said.
However, it does raise a question:
Can the tenant be held liable for damages to the apartment in which they reside?
“I believe there is room for discussion on how Schenectady should move forward with regards to life safety inspections on dwelling units,” Lunn said.
Yet removing local ordinances and only maintaining New York state minimum standards would fail to include all the two-family houses in the city, he said. And failing to inspect those properties would be a disservice to the public.
The Legal Aid Society, which provides legal advice to tenants in City Court, didn’t respond to several requests for comment.
Lunn said he would favor an inspection process that monetarily favors landlords who abide by regulations and maintain healthy properties while holding those landlords and tenants fiscally responsible when they do not abide by his department’s requests.
And it may be advantageous to revisit some city regulations, he said.
Landlords also want city police to treat property destruction as a criminal matter — not a civil matter.
But city police say the landlord-tenant relationship falls squarely under the parameters of a business dynamic.
When it comes to tenants trashing units and calling the cops, that’s precisely the type of police “weaponization” the department has pledged to distance itself from, a policy contained within their state-mandated blueprint for change adopted last year.
Chief Eric Clifford has met with landlords to discuss their concerns.
“We’re there to protect life and property, but we’re not there to be muscle for everybody,” said Clifford, who also noted it’s difficult for officers to prove who committed acts of residential vandalism.
Threats, however, will be taken seriously.
Landlords complained of those, too, from knife-wielding tenants to those who’ve actually embraced violence.
Mena Budhoo said one tenant kicked her down a flight of concrete stairs.
“All the while, he was standing there laughing,” Budhoo said.
City police were unable to immediately provide data on the number of calls landlords and property managers make about tenants who have either damaged their property or refused to leave.
But City Court officials said evictions are starting to work their way through the system after the statewide eviction moratorium expired Jan. 15.
As of last Thursday, 300 eviction warrants have been issued and approximately 600 cases are pending.
City Council President Marion Porterfield said she’s reviewing materials provided by the organizers of last week’s speakout, Schenectady Landlords Influencing Change. But there’s only so much the city can do, she said, and many of their concerns need to be addressed at the state level.
Landlords wonder how long they can hold out.
“We were here two years ago and we told you about the struggles we were having then and it’s only getting worse,” said Kimlee Marquise.