Landlords

A neighbor called us, one of the few ''good'' neighbors left on this crumbling block in this crumbling southwest Baltimore neighborhood of abandoned houses and crack dealers scattered about like so many cockroaches. Squatters had moved into one of our vacant houses and were using it as a base for their drug operation.The house is among several we own and manage in Baltimore's Pratt-Monroe area. Once a respectable lower-middle-class, blue-collar community sustained economically by low-skilled but decent-paying factory jobs, Pratt-Monroe has become another inner-city relic of the post-industrial age, another blemish on an urban landscape plagued with teen pregnancy, drug use, drug dealing and deteriorating housing.

The fliers first showed up in March, dropped on doorsteps of the big homes in Todd Stave's quiet cul-de-sac. They compared him to a Nazi. Two months later and 50 miles away, new anti-abortion leaflets appeared in another peaceful suburban subdivision, this time in Baltimore County. They had the same bloody images. But now, they targeted Stave's in-laws, asking neighbors to pray for the family and to call or visit their home. Protesters had also showed up at his daughter's middle school.

I read in Sunday's paper that city officials in the Housing Authority outright refuse to pay financial damages to plaintiffs who have won financial awards against due to damages their children endured while residing in public housing ( "Baltimore housing authority says it won't pay millions in lead poisoning judgments," April 3). It was noted chipped paint containing lead was all over the window sills in the public housing units. How is it acceptable that the city will not pay financial damages when they hold city landlords to a totally different standard?

Legislation that would expand Maryland's efforts to curb childhood lead poisoning remains in limbo, as House and Senate members strive to settle their differences over whether to give landlords who follow state law any legal protection against lawsuits from poisoning victims. HB644 , which passed the House, would expand state regulation of rental housing with lead paint in it to cover units built between 1950 and 1978.  The original 1994 law covers rental homes built before 1950.  The bill also would authorize the state to regulate renovation, repair and painting of all homes containing lead-based paint, which if improperly done can generate toxic dust that could cause brain damage to infants and toddlers.

Bonnie Celmer had been on the waiting list for Section 8 housing since July when she finally got a voucher three weeks ago. She's still living in a Baltimore County homeless shelter, unable to find an apartment. "I've been looking for a place, but I can't get anybody to accept the voucher," the 59-year-old said. Celmer spoke to a crowd of more than 100 gathered Wednesday evening at Towson United Methodist Church to support a proposal that would prohibit landlords from discriminating against potential tenants based on their sources of income.

Amid mounting complaints from homeowners dealing with irresponsible renters in their neighborhoods, the Baltimore County Council is considering a bill that could force landlords to curb tenants' rowdy behavior or face loss of their rental licenses. "Some of these communities are at their wits' ends," said Councilman Vincent Gardina, the bill's sponsor. "We need to be stricter about this." The council enacted a law last year limiting the number of tenants in a single-family home to two unrelated people.

A Woodbine couple's failure to obtain a rental permit does not entitle their former tenants to a $15,000 refund of rent payments, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals has ruled.The decision ends an unusual landlord-tenant dispute, which began two years ago when Tammy and Michael Citaramanis sued for the return of 18 months of rental payments upon learning that their landlords had no rental permit for their Columbia town house.Circuit Court Judge James B. Dudley found that the landlords, Eustace and Portia Hallowell, had violated the Consumer Protection Act, and awarded the Citaramanises their rent in full.

Tenants in many New Windsor rental units are tolerating the intolerable to keep the only homes they can afford. Mayor Jack A. Gullo Jr. says he has heard complaints, ranging from rat infestation to missing windows, from tenants and their neighbors.With the council's approval, Mr. Gullo has appointed resident Tony Ferace as a volunteer to help enforce the county's Minimum Livability Code, which New Windsor adopted several years ago."New Windsor needs to crack down on landlords," Mr. Gullo said.

In the heart of the east-side "hot zone" lies the 1200 block of N. Montford. Nine children who called it home have been poisoned by lead -- including Jevonte Sanders, 4. He breathed the invisible lead dust generated by the opening and closing of old windows in his mother's rented rowhouse. He crawled in it. The stuff stuck to his clothes and bedding. In 1996, he was diagnosed. "When the doctors first told me he had the lead, they said he could be brain damaged," recalls his mother, Delba Jones, 34. "Somebody tells you your baby could be handicapped for life, it's real scary."

For most of her landlords over the past three years, Kay Lorraine Clary has been a nightmare -- "a predatory tenant."In Howard and Baltimore counties, the 31-year-old administrative assistant and her former boyfriend have left a trail of damaged houses, civil judgments for thousands of dollars and at least seven victimized landlords, according to court records and the landlords.During the past few months, some of Ms. Clary's former landlords have formed an informal support group, tracking her ,, and her ex-boyfriend, and trying to get authorities to file criminal charges against them -- a rare step in rent disputes.

With efforts to reduce lead poisoning among children at a crossroads, Maryland lawmakers are wrestling with proposals to expand state regulation of home sales, rentals and repairs to reduce youngsters' exposure to the toxic metal. But the biggest question facing legislators might be how — or whether — to help landlords facing a flurry of lead-paint poisoning lawsuits from former tenants. The number of young children reported poisoned by lead in Maryland has dropped 98 percent since the mid-1990s.

Lost in the protest earlier this week, that in all likelihood resulted in the pulling of legislation seeking to regulate landlords in Harford County, was a curious juxtaposition of timing: the hearing for the ill-fated bill was one of the first orders of Harford County Council business to be transacted in the newly-reopened county council building, better known as the Black Box. The Black Box was evacuated about a year ago when its structural integrity...

One of the best reasons to avoid question headlines: They invite mischief. A Baltimore Twitter account tweeted a link to a website with this unconvincing come-on: “Do you want to know the 3 types of commercial landlords?” I RT'd, asking, “Venal, negligent, and predatory?”

Bonnie Celmer had been on the waiting list for Section 8 housing since July when she finally got a voucher three weeks ago. She's still living in a Baltimore County homeless shelter, unable to find an apartment. "I've been looking for a place, but I can't get anybody to accept the voucher," the 59-year-old said. Celmer spoke to a crowd of more than 100 gathered Wednesday evening at Towson United Methodist Church to support a proposal that would prohibit landlords from discriminating against potential tenants based on their sources of income.

In the 1960s, Baltimore's leaders, driven by both desperate need and newfound vision, enacted a first-of-its-kind housing code for the City of Baltimore. Its provisions ensured that Baltimore's residents, including even the poorest, would be able to obtain, at a bare minimum, housing that was "fit for human habitation. " Of course, the slumlords reacted in the knee-jerk manner one would expect. (To be clear, most landlords are not slumlords. Instead, they follow the law and do their best to provide safe housing.)

Know anyone who gets paid for doing nothing? Ground rent owners. These folks do nothing but claim their "booty" on a tax form. And it is all blessed by our politicians and lawyers. This could be solved if ground rent owners were required to be "landlords. " They should be responsible for any gases, rodent infestation, ground heaving or an old tree that falls on "my" house. How would you feel if you paid rent for your apartment, and the landlord had no legal responsibility for the upkeep of your pad?

I HAD A conversation once with a woman from a nearby neighborhood association who dismissed my opinion of my neighborhood when she learned that I was a renter and didn't actually own my home. She was intolerant of renters because she was more interested in raising property values on her block. I have a friend nearby -- he owns his home -- who believes that some in his neighborhood association have unrealistic expectations for their neighborhood and are therefore unsympathetic to renters.

TO REHAB or not to rehab? That was the question for our fledgling real estate firm after our elderly tenant's son died (who would have thought a 79-year-old mother would survive her 50-year-old son?) and she moved to Prince George's County to live with her daughter. Mother and son had lived in the West Baltimore rowhouse since January 1993. He died in July and she moved in August, vacating a house that needed lots of work. Living on a modest fixed income, the woman could not afford to maintain the house, and it showed.

The Maryland Court of Appeals decision this week to throw out liability limits for landlords upsets what had been one of the most productive compromises to come out of Annapolis in recent memory. The state's 1994 lead paint law, a product of extensive negotiations between property owners and public health advocates, has indisputably achieved its most crucial purpose: a drastic reduction in the number of children who are exposed to lead paint and, as a result, risk a lifetime of cognitive problems.

Maryland's highest court struck down Monday a key provision of state law that shielded owners of older rental housing from civil lawsuits - and potentially costly payments to victims - if they took precautions to protect children in their units from lead-paint poisoning. In a 7-0 ruling, the Court of Appeals declared that the 1994 lead-poisoning law violated the state's Constitution by denying a day in court to victims of the once-widespread environmental health scourge. In doing so, the court struck down what was considered a historic legislative compromise.