Letter from the Executive Director for November 2019: Certification is Live

November starts with four new accomplishments: the Certified Massachusetts Landlord Level One™ is now live, our two new staff writers have published, we weighed in against the Boston rent control rally, and our annual elections will be next month.

Our first-in-the-nation state specific certification is now live, complete with a professional profile you can create. To certify, visit MassLandlords.net/certification and follow the prompts to commit to a set of best practices. These best practices were developed by participants at events in three locations: Pittsfield, Springfield, and Waltham, as well as members and others who weighed in electronically from around the state. (The best practices can be updated as needed, tell us what you think!)

Before you can certify you will need to create a public professional profile. You can put as little information in your professional profile as you want, but know that renters or others who want to verify your certification will hope to see some corroborating details, like a picture, an address or a phone number.

Note that the certification is currently for individuals only. So if you wish to be recognized, you can be recognized as a sole proprietor or employee, etc., but not as your LLC; (entity certification will come later.) Level One is the foundation, onto which we will build Level Two, the exam, which will launch in January.

Our policy work continues apace. Two new writers, Eric Weld and Kim Harper Rau, have made contributions in this edition. A rally in favor of rent control was held in Boston, and for the first time the associated press called us for comment. We pointed out rent control’s fatal flaws, as we have detailed on our site at MassLandlords.net/policy/rent-control.

We are a democratically governed 501(c)6 nonprofit trade association, and each year our form of term limits compels us to elect a new director. If you are interested in getting involved, please start volunteering at your local chapter to help plan events or keep abreast of municipal politics. You can nominate anyone (including yourself) for state-wide board by emailing hello@masslandlords.net.

Tell a friend about certification. If you wish to help us be more effective advocates, please at your earliest convenience review the best practices at MassLandlords.net/certification and sign our pledge. Certification is the next, exciting step in our mission to create better rental housing in Massachusetts.

Sincerely,
Douglas Quattrochi
Executive Director
MassLandlords, Inc.