RHAGS President’s Message – November 2016

Dear RHAGS community,
I am proud that we held a successful legislative meeting on 10-13-16 where senator Eric Lessor and candidate Chip Harrington were present to share their views on housing issues and more importantly listen to our concerns and ideas to help balance laws in MA regarding rental housing.

Many thanks to all the volunteers, and our staff, Sue and Doug, for putting together this event.  MassLandlords Inc. is gaining more attention from your legislators and affiliate groups as a large voice and resource for rental housing policy.

We are heading towards a new two-year legislative cycle in MA where I am excited to file bills to hopefully change the laws to add more balance between tenant and landlord rights in MA.

Attorney Peter Vickery will be helping me and MassLandlords file or refile four bills as follows in no particular order:

• Security deposits - New bill to make taking one easier to comply with law.
• Move and Store - Change existing law to shorten the time landlord has to pay to store and make more storage facilitates available.
• Rent Escrow - Require the tenant to pay escrow of rent if they are withholding it for counterclaims of landlord not making repairs.
• Late Fee - Change law from waiting 30 days to 10 days before being able to charge a late fee.

As a member of the board of directors of both MassLandlords and Mass State-wide Realtors I will continue to advocate and seek alliances with other groups across the state to promote fair and just rental housing policy and laws in MA.

Please stay tuned for our calls to action to engage, educate and hopefully influence our elected officials to bring back some "equity" in the housing laws in MA.

Sincerely,
Russell Sabadosa
MassLandlords Board of Directors
Springfield Volunteer Manager/Local President