Rent Escrow Advocate Chris Walsh Wins Good Neighbor 2016
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Each year MassLandlords recognizes a non-member for going above and beyond to help landlords. The winner of the 2016 award, announced last month, was Representative Chris Walsh, 6th Middlesex (Framingham), who negotiated a compromise rent escrow bill between the “far right” Skip Schloming of the Small Property Owners Association, a MassLandlords partner group, and the “far left” Annette Duke of the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI).
MassLandlords Executive Director Doug Quattrochi (left) presented Representative Chris Walsh with the 2016 Good Neighbor Award on January 18, 2017 at the State House.
MassLandlords and Representative Walsh filed HD 383, An Act relative to rent escrow, to see if this compromise text can become law. MassLandlords has a new part-time Legislative Affairs Counsel, Peter Vickery, to help guide this effort.
20 Years of Advocacy
The rent escrow bill proposed would eliminate the so-called “free rent trick,” in which broke tenants start to get evicted but then delay eviction with counterclaims about the shoddy condition of their apartment. The MassLandlords bill maintains essential protections for tenants who withhold rent in order to get their landlord’s attention on safety issues.
Landlords have been advocating for this reform since posters went up on college campuses advertising “I will teach you the free rent trick” decades ago. (Although MassLandlords staff have seen one photograph, it could not be found in time for publication.)
Uncertain Future
The intent of the bill is to change the law with the support of both landlords and tenant advocates. Not all agree that this is worth doing.
During negotiations, MLRI representatives took exception to the term “free rent trick.” MLRI is expected to testify once again that mandatory escrow is not required.
Skip and Lenore Schloming at SPOA resigned shortly after the SPOA board rescinded approval of an HD 383 precursor (SPOA October 2016 Newsletter, “SPOA leaders resign amid dissension on rent escrow”). SPOA, a MassLandlords partner with freedom to set policy independently, has filed alternate legislation. Schloming himself is not in favor of the HD 383 compromise, modified since his negotiations ended. HD 383 would potentially fail to stop the free rent trick and merely expose it.
Overall, five rent escrow bills have been filed this session.
The MassLandlords Board of Directors, Executive Director and legislative affairs counsel believe HD 383 will expose the free rent trick where it exists, give landlords a new tool that should eliminate it, and if it fails, not make things any worse. Even this last point is in dispute. One SPOA attorney claims that the MassLandlords bill establishes dangerous precedent about hardship.
The basic point is, it may be better to try this, rather than wait another 20 years for a compromise. It is not known whether this is our “one shot” or if the law could be modified in a subsequent session. As MassLandlords grows, we hope to emulate the Massachusetts Association of REALTORS, who are able to make regular adjustments to public policy.
Rep Walsh Still Wins
Whatever the outcome of the bill, Representative Walsh still deserves to be recognized for having months of difficult conversations with ideologically opposite people. We need more of this in Massachusetts -- and America -- and Rep Walsh has our sincere thanks.
