Rent Control to be Heard in Somerville Aug 11

According to the Small Property Owners Association, on August 11, 2016 the City of Somerville will hear a motion to require serious restrictions on property rights. Buyers or owners who want to convert a unit to a condo must give tenants one or two years’ notice, right of first refusal to purchase the unit, and moving expenses if the tenant doesn’t buy the unit. There are restrictions on renovation, as well.

Most notably, the new ordinance seeks to enact “Just Cause Eviction”, a form of rent control: “No tenant may be given notice … to vacate the premises upon less than the one-year notice … except by reason of nonpayment of rent, conduct that disturbs other tenants' peaceful enjoyment of the premises, or other substantial violation of the terms of the tenancy.” Absent from this list is refusal to pay a rent increase. Read the ordinance.

This restriction on the free usage of property will decrease property values for all regardless of whether any one owner intends to convert. Future buyers won’t want Somerville properties when neighboring municipalities will offer the natural freedom to renovate and to raise rents.

Somerville has historically done a good job of housing low income households by permitting free-market development of density. Tougher regulations are not the answer. They are the problem, symptomatic of a conversationally barren political landscape. State-wide zoning reform is needed.

SPOA is urging all interested parties to attend the hearing from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the Visiting Nurse Association, in the Community Room, 259 Lowell Street, Somerville.