How Do Things Get Better For CT Landlords?
I hear it all the time….”the eviction laws favor tenants,”…the “CHRO discrimination process is legalized extortion,”… “the lead paint issue is a hoax…children’s lead levels are at historic lows but their I.Q. scores are also going down,”…Bob can’t CTPOA fix any of this?
Well the answer is both yes and no! We can’t fix any of this legislatively, we’ve tried for many years but in Connecticut the cards are stacked against landlords. However, landlords can get organized and work together as a team to unseat Legislators that are openly hostile to private landlords and businesses and at the same time elect pro-landlord legislators.
The progress we have made at the Capitol has ground to a halt the past couple of years as liberal committee leaders favor tenants over landlords. A recent example of this bias is Representative William Tong of Stamford who is now running for Attorney General in CT. Last year several landlords asked to meet with him in his district to discuss housing matters, specifically the complaints about the CHRO process being totally one-sided and favoring tenants. His response was devastating, he basically said that frivolous discrimination complaints are in fact a cost of doing business and that landlords had to suck it up. Then he continued to say basically that you don’t have the votes to change things!”
We pursued to fix the CHRO law despite Tong’s assertion with a Bill proposed by Representative Cara Pavalock of Bristol, (Bill# 7303) and when it arrived in Tongs committee (he is the House Chair on Judiciary) it was basically stripped of all language that was going to help landlords and instead new language was inserted to help CHRO and tenants….we then had to work hard to kill our own Bill.
There is no way to fix things legislatively unless the players change at the State Capitol. Liberal leaders run committees and their agenda is just not in line with most business owners. This November there is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fix things at the State Capitol. Landlords will have an opportunity this November to get organized and vote out several anti-business, anti-landlord legislators and help elect pro-landlord legislators. Then and only then can things possible get better for rental owner in the State of Connecticut. Remember we did this in New Britain in 2013 when that city’s mayor attacked landlords, we can do it again in November, it’s the only solution!
