Just Cause Eviction Hearing 2018 Jan 30

The following email was sent to MassLandlords subscribers at 10 am.

A descendant of rent control, the Jim Brooks Stabilization Act aka Just Cause Eviction, is being heard Tuesday, January 30 (tomorrow) at 1pm in room A-2 at the State House. The title "Just Cause" is both misleading and ironic. It is not just, and it will cause more problems.

MassLandlords opposes this act as bad public policy. The act has deeply partisan origins. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh lied about involving landlords in its creation (he did not involve landlords, as our public records request proved). Partisanship is no answer to the high cost of housing in Boston and Massachusetts.

If you wish to testify at the hearing, here is what you might say:

• We agree that measures must be taken to help seniors and low-income households remain in their neighborhoods despite a housing shortage and rising rents.
• We oppose House 4142 as a badly drafted and partisan measure contrary to the public good.
• House 4142 is so badly conceived it even violates State and Federal Fair Debt Collection practices acts.
• House 4142 ought not to pass.

Additional information:

If House 4142 passes, owners will have to copy the City on eviction notices. Normally these are not public. Normally landlord-tenant disputes are resolved privately without either party appearing in the public records. Every year the City of Boston is going to publish the names and addresses of thousands of tenants and their landlords to the public record.

Mass General Laws Chapter 93 Section 49 states, "No one who is a creditor... shall communicate... the fact of such debt or alleged debt... to a person other than the person who might reasonably be expected to be liable therefor... The provisions of this paragraph shall not prohibit a creditor from [engaging] an attorney."

Federal Trade Commission 15 United States Code 1601 states, "A debt collector may not communicate, in connection with the collection of any debt, with any person other than the consumer, his attorney, a consumer reporting agency if otherwise permitted by law, the creditor, the attorney of the creditor, or the attorney of the debt collector."

House 4142 is a liability for the City of Boston and the Commonwealth and ought not to pass.

We expect this bill will pass unless you can get the Legislature to agree with us that it's badly crafted policy. Please attend the hearing if you can.

State House, Room A-2
1pm - 5pm, Tuesday, January 30

We would work with the City of Boston and the Legislature on alternatives, if only they would invite us.

Sincerely,
Douglas Quattrochi
Executive Director
MassLandlords, Inc.