Attorney Stuart Schrier Receives MassLandlords Good Neighbor Award 2017
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On Feb. 9, 2018, MassLandlords presented Attorney Stuart Schrier of Dorchester the 2017 Good Neighbor Award. Attorney Schrier testified against the Jim Brooks Stabilization Act (now H.4142) at the March 6, 2017 Boston City Council meeting.
MassLandlords Executive Director Doug Quattrochi, left, presents the award to Attorney Stuart Schrier, right.
Attorney Schrier’s testimony was the first to identify that the Jim Brooks Stabilization Act violates state and federal fair debt collection practices acts by requiring owners to copy the City of Boston on notices to quit. Third parties cannot be notified of private debts, with few exceptions, attorneys and the judicial branch being among them. The City of Boston is no exception and cannot be copied.
Most of the other testimony filed by landlords denounced the bill as a backdoor form of rent control. After several years of dysfunctional public hearing (inadequate notice, no invitation to landlord groups), many of the explicit rent controls have been removed from the bill, without killing it.
On March 30, 2017, a MassLandlords public records request revealed that Boston Mayor Marty Walsh lied about the origins of Jim Brooks Stabilization Act.
MassLandlords Executive Director Doug Quattrochi in that statement, “Mayor Walsh tried to sell this as some kind of collaborative effort. That’s just not true, and his own documents prove it. He claimed that the petition was the ‘result of many months of conversations between the City, the advocacy community, and local property owners.’ The records certainly show plenty of conversations between the City and the ‘advocacy community.’ But with property owners? Nothing.”
At time of writing, it was not known whether H.4142 would be passed by the legislature. Attorney Schrier had previously stated that he would seek to enjoin the city against enforcement if the legislature approves the bill.
In December, the MassLandlords membership voted Attorney Schrier the recipient of Good Neighbor Award 2017.
Attorney Schrier (Stuart, as he prefers to be called) said he was delighted with the award, and joked that the only problem was the plaque didn’t come with a screw to hang it. Attorney Schrier is modest and hangs very little of his work on his office walls. MassLandlords will make sure future recipients also receive a landlord-approved drywall anchor.
The Good Neighbor Award recognizes non-members who go above and beyond to help owners and/or to create better rental housing in Massachusetts. Prior award recipients include Jamie Williamson, then chair of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, and Christopher Walsh, Representative of 6th Middlesex.
