Letter from the Executive Director for November 2022: Preparing for 193

In October we drafted and redrafted bills, engaged attorneys and prepared for the upcoming 193rd legislative session, which begins in January. Normal educational operations gained steam, as well.

In terms of educational events, we’ve been making regular improvements to our process for event planning. It may be starting to pay off. At time of writing we showed eight events listed as far as seven weeks in advance. We will continue to invest in our process infrastructure so we can all plan ahead to meet our learning objectives in our businesses.

Annual elections for MassLandlords will take place in December (video). At time of writing we had four nominees. We will introduce these folks in time for members to decide who will become the next of our five directors.

We filed our motion to reconsider in our lawsuit against the Department of Housing and Community Development. This will be integrated with our appeal. In it, affidavits from a landlord, two renters and one researcher provide new information the court did not have when it considered our motion to dismiss.

Meanwhile, Boston drew our attention when Mayor Wu appointed new members to 10 of the 14 zoning board of appeals seats, including the chair. Our small experience with Boston ZBA was most recently when they denied an application for a licensed rooming house from one of our members, despite support from MassLandlords, abutters and two city councilors. The mayor is aware of the need for more housing, and we’re glad she found the old ZBA to be coming up short.

Boston has been an ongoing focus for us since they failed to comply with our public records request about the Rent Stabilization Advisory Committee. We have engaged an attorney and will present a suit to the board for voting in November.

On Oct. 12, the state sanitary code changed. Our video walk-through gives the highlights.

Lastly, we are dusting off and preparing to refile bills from previous sessions. We have one on civil asset forfeiture that passed the senate. Another would free LLCs to be represented by officers. A third would subject the legislature to the public records law. We have also drafted new legislation to require housing laws (and all laws) show their proposed changes plainly for all to see. And most importantly, we want to do something about the short-term near certainty of flooding in Back Bay condos and other housing in coastal Massachusetts.

The Climate Resilient Capital Task Force may be years ahead of its time, but unless we pass it now, it will end up being one hurricane too late.

MassLandlords’ work benefits owners, managers and service providers of rental housing across the industry. Please join as a member, become a property rights supporter or increase your level of support.

Sincerely,

Douglas Quattrochi

Executive Director

MassLandlords, Inc.