Help please, village wanting to create ordinance for ordinance

[Heather Rodden]

The village we have rentals in want to create an ordinance making the landlord responsible for the tenant’s actions. From one of the council members: “For those of you that read the article in the paper. Village to seek solution for unpaid fines. This will be further discussed at the next committee of the whole meeting. But I will give you my take on this. We hear all the time why don't you do something about this or that. Why aren't the police doing something about ordinance violations ? Well they are they write citations/fines and some pay some don't some fix the issue some don't. For those that don't the village then incures even more expense to take legal action on these people. By the time it goes through the process a $250 fine will cost the village two to three times that. So we need to find another cost effective solution to this problem that will get the issues fixed. The largest issues we have with ordinance violations are primarily rental property and most are non-resident owned. I think that all the water bills need to be in the property owners name and they can include the water in there rent or what ever they choose to do. Then when there is a ordinance violation written to the occupant they will be given 14 days to fix the issue and pay the fine. If not brought into compliance by that time then the owner of that property should be given the same ordinance violation ticket and 14 days to fix the issue and have all fines paid if not then the water to that property should be shut off until it is in compliance with the ordinance and all fines are paid. This is my thoughts on this issue Nothing has been decided on and is up for discussion at next meeting.” What are your feelings on this? What would your argument be at the meeting?

[Adam Gollatz]

Here in Milwaukee the owner is responsible for the water bill and the tax bill. If the tenant does something to incur a cost (leave trash outside, not mow, not shovel, etc) the fine will end up against the property and the owner will ultimately be responsible. The way we deal with it here is addressing the specifics in the lease with penalties (ie not leaving trash outside), screening tenants and setting expectations, and taking care of the things we can and incorporating the costs into rent (ie mowing the lawn and snow removal).

Honestly it doesn't sound too outrageous or out of the ordinary. Sounds like the village was mismanaged and just eventually getting caught up with the times. Hopefully if they arent incurring all these costs and the city gets better youll see taxes go down and the neighborhood improve which will translate to more money for you in the long run.