We Need Your Support
Rent control and the legalized extortion of property may be coming to Massachusetts as early as January. Read our full letter.
The Boston Metro Mayor's Coalition held a press conference in October announcing that 15 communities representing a quarter of Massachusetts voters had agreed to, among other things, an anti-displacement agenda. Although they stopped short of naming any one policy, the language they used is the same language used by advocates of Just Cause Eviction Rent Control and Tenant Right of First Refusal.
On October 2, 2018, Marty Walsh (left) speaks about the anti-displacement agenda accompanied by Marc Draisen (second from left), an advocate of just cause eviction.
Under Just Cause Eviction, it will be illegal to terminate a tenancy because you need to renovate, because the renter won't agree to your rent increase, or (in the case of a month-to-month) because of unspecified reasons. This policy will create tenancies for life.
Under Tenant Right of First Refusal, it will be illegal to transfer a deed unless you first give your renters and local nonprofits up to six months to buy it for themselves. Advocates want all real estate in Massachusetts to be owned by non-profits.
It is expected that the Metro Mayor's Coalition may file state-wide rent control and right of first refusal legislation as early as January 2019. Boston filed Just Cause Eviction in March 2018 and we were able to defeat it. But now the idea is spreading.
Members can donate here.
If you own or manage rental property, membership will pay for itself in terms of savings, legal information, and training/certification. There is no other organization besides MassLandlords that is democratically governed by members, for members to provide the owner perspective in policy.
In a Democracy, the Majority can Vote Away the Rights of a Minority without Protection
We need every small business owner and manager to join MassLandlords to counterbalance a wave of anti-owner sentiment. Look at what the supporters of Just Cause Eviction Rent Control say and do.
The rent control movement has been growing for the last two years. Here protestors hold a Human Rights Violation sign at the Renters Day of Action in September, 2016 accusing the Greater Boston Real Estate Board of blocking tenant protections like Just Cause Eviction Rent Control. Twitter image credit likely Eli Gerzon.
Image of Boston City Hall "Die In" Sep 22, 2016 likely due to Eli Gerzon, Twitter, http://34.gs/ext_tw_eligerzondiein. Editorial use.
Look at the hateful response to this very campaign. The fringe far-left are an extreme minority in Massachusetts, but they shout down anyone who would disagree. City officials will find it easier to cave to their clamor unless you fund our even-handed alternatives.
Members can donate here.
MassLandlords is a strong and reasonable advocate for other ways to lower the cost of housing, including zoning reform, right to subdivide, mandatory rent escrow as a good faith gesture during habitability disputes, and much more.
On December 7, 2016, Jim Braude hosted Lydia Edwards (City of Boston), Doug Quattrochi (MassLandlords), and Marc Draisen (Metropolitan Area Planning Council) to debate the Jim Brooks Stabilization Act. MassLandlords was the only voice opposed to bringing back rent control in Massachusetts.
Full Letter to Owners and Managers about the Return of Rent Control
Updated November 28, 2018
Dear Rental Property Owner, Manager, or Friend:
Do you want to stop the return of rent control? Here at MassLandlords we certainly do. It’s time to get serious and mobilize.
Wait: Didn’t Massachusetts get rid of rent control? Yes, the voters – We the People – abolished it in 1994 via the ballot. But ever since, tenant advocates and ideologues have yearned for its return. Now they have found a way to remarket rent control by calling it “Just Cause Eviction” and “Tenant Right of First Refusal.”
New name, same failed policy. Rent control in disguise and with no escape.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s so-called “Just Cause” Eviction and Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone’s Tenant Right of First Refusal are in danger of spreading. In October, politicians in 15 cities and towns jumped on the bandwagon. We expect them to enact local rent control – and file statewide legislation restricting sales – as early as January.
Unjust Cause
Just Cause Eviction requires an owner to pick one of several “just causes” for every tenancy termination. Conspicuously absent from the list of “just causes”? A tenant’s refusal to pay a rent increase.
The Legislature nearly enacted Just Cause Eviction last session. It was only because Boston did it alone that we defeated it. Now the Metro Mayor’s Coalition have signed onto “guiding principles” to maintain “housing stability.” The meaning is clear: Just Cause Eviction Rent Control is being rebranded and foisted on a dozen additional communities.
Right of First Scam
With Tenant Right of First Refusal, advocates want to stop the sale of any multifamily for six months while your renters consider making an offer.
Of course, your renters may choose to surrender their right of first refusal. But if only if the price is right.
Experience from Washington, D.C., which already has a similar ordinance called the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), suggests that rather than making an offer, most tenants will sell their right of first refusal to the owner (or a third-party lawyer/developer). If you’re an owner looking for a smooth sale, the tenants have got you over a barrel.
Out of 398 covered real-estate transactions in the period 2009-15, only 19 were TOPA sales to tenants. In other words, 95% of tenants waived their TOPA rights for a fee instead of making an offer.
It’s not only tenants who are getting money for nothing. In 2017, NBC’s News4 I-Team looked into the phenomenon of “TOPA chasers,” i.e. lawyers targeting D.C. renters for a portion of their payout.
“I would estimate it’s essentially about a $100 million a year industry that is virtually untapped,” said Andrew McGuire, who has converted his entire law practice to handle only TOPA cases.
“I've been accused of hostage-taking,” McGuire said. “I don't like that term.”
But he acknowledged he holds up home sales for a living. He said his goal is to get tenants the most money he can for their TOPA rights, and he takes a cut of the payout.
“You want the buyer to walk away,” he said. “If the buyer walks away, it clears the deck so the tenant can assign his rights to a developer who’ll come in and then the seller has no one else to sell to.”
Let’s be blunt. The policy is more than a failure; it’s a scam factory. It holds up house sales and subjects homeowners to legalized extortion.That’s why earlier this year the local council in Washington, D.C., moved to dramatically scale back TOPA.
Yes, this policy is such a disaster that they had second thoughts about it even in Washington, D.C.
Nevertheless, this is the very policy that advocates are trying to import into Massachusetts, city by city and town by town.
In the Massachusetts version of right of first refusal, tenants would not be able to sell their right to any lawyer or developer, but only to a tenant non-profit. That’s cold comfort. We all know that nonprofits are not immune to human frailty. They still get cited for code violations. They still pay fines for discrimination. And unlike private landlords, they pay no real estate tax to support their local municipalities. Also, the bill pushed last session did nothing to prohibit nonprofits from bundling the assigned rights and selling them on. That's a glaring gap that invites exploitative scams. You have to laugh or you’d cry.
As if Just Cause Eviction and Tenant Right of First Refusal weren’t bad enough, to add insult to injury, Somerville, Boston and others are passing additional restrictions on the use and disposition of real property. They want to ban professionals from renting via Airbnb. They want to subject most renovations to historic review. They fail to recognize the role that burdensome zoning laws play in the scarcity and cost of housing and the permanent, systemic homelessness we have created here in the Commonwealth. More regulation is not the answer.
To fight for your rights, we need to fight these proposals as they come up.
Early Warning Software: the Right Tool
Thanks to technology, we can obtain an invaluable tool to tell every town and city how private owners can create safe, affordable units if only we would be free to do so. We can automatically read hearing notices from municipal websites within an hour of their being posted. We need this so-called “scraping” tool because MassLandlords should know about – and be at – every municipal hearing concerning housing.
“If the members want us to go to bat for them, we need a bat,” said MassLandlords Legislative Affairs Counsel Peter Vickery. “A big, powerful bat. And that’s what this software is.”
We must get early warning of city and town hearings. The cost of housing is real. Displacement is real. But without owner input the solutions being invented are real bad. We have important, valid input on zoning, subdivision, and homelessness-assistance, and we can do more for a fraction of the economic costs being considered. Help us learn about and provide input for these hearings.
Leading the Fight for Property Rights
In 2014, MassLandlords raised funds to defend Kaz Ochap, who was barred from representing himself in Worcester Housing Court and was rejected by legal services. We backed Kaz and got his units back into service.
In 2015, we filed a last-minute amicus briefing to defend landlord Garth Meikle, who nervously gave his own testimony in front of the Supreme Judicial Court himself, without a lawyer. If only we had known sooner! Harvard Legal Aid Bureau prevailed in undoing his eviction – even though the tenant owed $3,000 in rent -- because Garth owed $3 in security deposit interest.
In 2017, we defended Fred Basile in front of the Supreme Judicial Court. Fred had followed court procedure, but the tenant advocates said he had violated the law and owed triple damages. We succeeded in stopping an automatic claim of triple damages.
In early 2018, we pulled together and defeated the first salvo by Boston to enact Just Cause Eviction Rent Control. In the six months since they’ve redoubled their efforts.
When Fred Basile heard we would be leading the fight against this resurgence of rent control, he told me, “I know what it’s like to receive support.” He thanked us all for helping with his case last year. And he immediately reached into his pocket and made the first donation to our early warning system to help us get this letter to you.
We urgently need your help to fight rent control at the town and city hearings where these bills will originate. Please help us get an early warning system for hearings by supporting our acquisition and development of scraping software. All donations are fully tax deductible as a business investment.
Become a monthly Property Rights Supporter using the enclosed form or online at MassLandlords.net/property. If every member gave just $5 a month more, there would never be a city or town wanting for landlord input. If every member gave us just one across-the-board 1% rent increase, we’d surpass all the but the largest tenant advocacy groups overnight.
We have a long way to go for the cause of fairness. Please help us bring our voice to the town and city level.
Sincerely,
Douglas Quattrochi
Executive Director
hello@masslandlords.net
774-314-1896
Your membership or additional donation will:
- Purchase an early warning system for hearings
- Activate members and staff to talk to towns and cities before it’s too late
- Sustain this initiative for the indefinite future
