The List was asked for suggestions about how a "Responsible Landlord" should
act, and I gave a few. And yours are?
The #3 was possibly misunderstood. It was meant to be where the Landlord
might be charged with controlling a "Disorderly House". A criminal charge
against the landlord punishable by 1 year in jail and a three thousand
dollar fine. Landlords should not be expected to place themselves in
jeopardy of jail to rent an apartment.
In reply to Bill Cullen, you certainly sound like a responsible landlord.
The credit points part is interesting. My suggestions were intended to be
the minimum, not what should be expected. As I stated my own expectation is
that a landlord will not rent an apartment to anyone whom that landlord
would not willingly have live in the same house with his family. Because
they will be living with somebody's family.
Sort of that old golden rule thing, "Do unto others as you would be done
unto". Most rental property owners are wonderful people, but there are some
who deserve what happens to them.
An example:
Just across the street from me a Real Estate Agent bought a small duplex as
a speculative property. She immediately rented to some less than desirable
people with a business breeding pitbulls in their house as well as other
possible things given their desire for privacy. We attempted to tell the
"agent" owner the problem with her tenants, but she got snotty and said she
would take care of her own tenants.
These folks who rented the apartments reminded me of some white folks from
back home in the trailer park. In fact I had to remind my wife that I might
have come from similar roots, so to stop with the White Trailer-Trash
remarks. Heck, my family aspired to live in a trailer when I was young, so
back then I was "Wantabe Trailer Trash". The renters kept all the windows
covered with blankets or blacked out, and got real uptight if someone looked
at them when they were entering their house. This did make me a little
suspicious about what they might have been "cooking" for dinner.
These people often let their dogs get into my yard and threaten my people
until one lunged over a fence and almost bit me in the face. After that I
gently reminded them that there were people in this world that understood
the language of violence, but who might be fluent to a level they were
totally unprepared to deal with. I explained that I considered an attack
trained pit bull to be a lethal weapon, and might be afraid for my life, and
as such I would have to deal with the person who was threatening me with
that weapon. It really was indeed a language that made impressions upon
those folks, so much so that they then understood exactly why I thought it
unsafe for them to allow their dogs to attack someone. Afterwards they then
managed to successfully keep their dogs pinned up and away from members of
my family. I called the police once when the dogs were lose, but an officer
said they had to witness the dogs threatening someone, or the dog had to
bite someone, before they could do anything. I figured after that the best
course of action was to "Splain" it myself..
I had a moment of pity as the woman came to view her building after several
months not seeing it. Just a moment, when she was screaming and crying
because those tenants she would not listen about had destroyed her house,
the garage and the total yard. After that I felt some pity for her, but
only for that moment, until I remembered what could have happened. Then I
was again happy that she had gotten what all irresponsible landlords
actually deserve. She probably will lose twenty-five or thirty thousand
dollars for the thousand dollars a month she received for that eleven
months. A judge should have sentenced her to live with that crowd for six
months as a punishment for the mounds of dog feces and lunging nasty dogs,
just so she experienced what she had inflicted on my neighborhood.
But I have digressed in my joy that this family has moved on to plague some
other poor neighborhood. So please, you other List members help Bill out.
Property owners really do need to have a code of ethics for their
profession. Help Bill to develop one. Bill is acting amazingly responsible
to his community and City, so folks should participate with him. So Tim,
now what was your suggestion? I know you have at least one. We all do.
Jim Graham,
Ventura Village
"Without conflict communication and novel synthesis of information cannot
take place. Conflict is the fertile soil in which creativity grows."
- (I probably stole this idea from Zimmel)
REMINDERS:
1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If
you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL
PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list.
2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html
For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract
________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn
E-Democracy
Post messages to: mailto:[email protected]
Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
