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Landlord Association newsletter library |
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Landlord Association newsletter library |
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Volume 7 Number 5 Nov/Dec 2002 |
LIBRARY |
contents
From The
President
Many Thanks
HOME HEATING HORROR
ARE YOU GLAD YOU
ARE A LANDLORD
UMSL
NEIGHBORHOOD LIFE INITIATIVES
Calendar
Next Meeting,
Agenda and Lunch
contents FROM THE PRESIDENT - Patty Hofer Dear Members & Friends, Hope you are enjoying the fall colors. I could do without the cold. This is the first time I can remember turning the heat on in October. During our September meeting Treasurer, Mary DeMierre reported a balance of $2,591.74. Our guest speaker was Cyndy James, Director of the Citizens' Service Bureau. CSB is the city customer service bureau designed to streamline service requests and produce data for meeting the needs of St Louisans. Between the hours of 8 AM and 5 PM, Monday through Friday, one may telephone 314.622.4800 concerning any problem under the auspices of city government. The Bureau takes some 110,000 calls per year concerning buildings, trash, vegetation, unsafe health conditions, animals, parks, water service, conditions of streets or alleys, etc. Although CSB does not provide direct services, the staff member answering the call registers the request, routes it to the proper city department and can give the caller a work order number to follow-up. All complaints are monitored, inspections are done and the condition should be rectified during a predetermined turn around time. If the condition is not changed an overdue/exception report can be requested to determine why there is a delay. The complainant can call back for a status report. The city estimates 1 ½ cubic yards of household trash per unit and 3 bulk items per unit, but illegal dumping in the alleys is a perennial problem which costs all of us. Any help citizens can give in reporting illegal dumping in progress to the police by calling 911 with a license plate number, description of the person involved and a description of the vehicle may make the caller eligible for a $100 reward. Perhaps the "LET'S TALK TRASH" bulletin could be part of our tenant information packets. (Copies will be available at the November meeting.) This is another time when the disposable cameras we should all have could come in very handy to actually photograph the person, vehicle and trash left. Cyndy closed by reminding us that city employees are by and large are a "good bunch of hard working people" who join us in trying to stabilize our neighborhoods. Senator Harry Kennedy had a conflict and was not able to attend the meeting, but he did send his newsletter and other messages about his work for us in Jefferson City. Jim Magnus, our Legislative Analyst talked about the circuit attorney's web site that track arrest and prosecution information to spot problem tenants before we allow them to move into our units. He also said that Benton Park West has a group that is tracking the performance of judges in sentencing repeat offenders. Two bills concerning landlords are before the Public Safety Committee, BB#70 sponsored by Alderman Greg Carter eliminates the inspector's power to grant extensions for correcting deficiencies. BB#123 sponsored by Ken Ortmann eliminates the loophole that allows an occupancy permit to be granted even though exterior conditions are not in compliance. Ed Note: Chairwoman, Sharon Tyus has been particularly patient with the landlord groups who have been arguing both these bills. C/HH did not register any objections because no one in the association has complained, so I assume we are not having problems meeting city requirements. Just for our information, Jim mentioned that Webster is raising their inspection fees from $25 to $65. Guess those county burgs are trying to keep up with the city. Vice-President Don Schmidt took a few minutes to explain how important personal computers are becoming in our business. One can look up arrests and convictions in minutes for initial tenant screening. Names and addresses of property owners are also available. Member, Don Eddingfield won our attendance raffle. Elections are upon us again. The current officers Patty Hofer, President, 1st Vice-President Don Schmidt, 2nd Vice-President Ron DeMierre and Treasurer, Mary DeMierre are willing to run again. Or you could throw them all out and start fresh. Nominations will be taken from the floor for at least the position of secretary. The board meets as infrequently as possible, usually during even months to prepare for our next meeting in the odd month. The members of C/HH LA have brains, talent and a true appreciation for our beautiful St Louis architecture, being an officer means sharing those gifts to benefit our customers and colleagues. So please consider taking an office. The board has planned an especially important meeting for November 18th. Our guest speaker will be the renowned Philip Duckwall, who will explain the monthly net income method of investment property valuation. This method determines all monthly operating expenses and fund set asides for capital replacement (depreciation) which are subtracted from the optimum monthly gross rent to ascertain the monthly net income available for debt amortization. Phil will also have slides to show his trademark floor plans, most appreciated amenities, and sparkling clean basements. I have met three of Phil's previous residents, (one of whom is our new Neighborhood Stabilization Office, Brian Kolde) who all agree that he is an esteemed landlord. Is that not the kind of reputation we all want? Please come to the meeting, we promise you will learn more than enough to make the trip worth it. Speaking of landlords the South County Journal published a diatribe titled "Landlords have problems too" on 6 Oct 02 by a board member of another landlord group. Particularly disturbing was the misunderstanding that writer has of Equal Housing Opportunity law and city law. She says, "The city of St Louis is the first to criticize landlords for renting to drug dealers and prostitutes but requires us to rent without discrimination to anyone who has the security deposit and first month's rent." Wrong. An applicant must be able to prove a legal source of income to sustain his/her ability to pay for the full term of the lease. Lack of income is a definite deal breaker. Property owners are not at all obligated to rent to anyone just because s/he has money in his/her hand. One is legally free to choose among prospective tenants as long as one's decisions are based on legitimate business criteria. A landlord is entitled to reject people with bad credit histories, income that the landlord regards as insufficient to pay the rent, or past behavior, such as property damage or consistent late rent payments, that make a prospect a bad risk. A valid occupancy limit that is clearly tied to health and safety or legitimate business needs; a rental policy requiring six months employment at the same place, can also be a legal basis for refusing tenants with a scattered employment history. Federal and state law prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, familial status, physical or mental disability, and sexual orientation. Just treat everyone civilly and consistently. In July I said I was experimenting with using Apartment Search to find a new resident. Things really did not go very well. Services that were touted during a session at last year's Landlords Conference were not offered. No one came to vet the apartment until the following week, rather than immediately. Then, only one prospect actually came to see the unit. Although she would have probably qualified, she worked out of Spirit of St Louis Airport, so the commute to south city, seemed to me to make her a poor match. Mr Landlord often says his residents ask him if they can pay more rent. Mr Landlord is based in California so I've always felt that Missourians would never pay a penny more than necessary. Our newest resident is from California and believe it or not, within a week of moving in he was offering to pay an extra $50 a month to have the whole garage. We're now targeting Californians for all our vacancies. Looking forward to seeing all of you on Monday, November 18th. XXXX Many thanks to ROSE JUSTICE, MEL OSSOWSKY and GEORGE STRAHL who did such a good job staffing our booth at the Community Expo on October 12th. Our presence at neighborhood events is important to actively demonstrate our mission "To maintain and improve values, in partnership with the community: to attract quality tenants and to have safe, desirable neighborhoods." XXXX HOME-HEATING HORROR Carbon monoxide - colorless, odorless and deadly by Brobson Lutz, MD New Orleans, November 2002 Edna Krause and Philip Locantro attended grade school at McDonogh No. 11 on Palmyra Street. After serving in Europe during World War II, Philip returned to New Orleans, a romance kindled, and a wedding took place in December 1945. On another December day 52 years later. Philip Locantro died, initially an unrecognized victim of chronic carbon- monoxide poisoning. "My husband took his pension because of high blood pressure, but we both had just the usual old- age problems until the winter of 1995. That's when we both started having more and more medical problems," says Edna Locantro. Toxic gas fumes from a heater in their house turned the last few years of Philip's life into a medical nightmare that also caused health problems for Edna. Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless and deadly gas. It conjures up images of suicide, such as that of John Kennedy Toole, author of A Confederacy of Dunces, who in 1969 was found life-less in a sealed car on a remote road near Biloxi. Carbon-monoxide fumes fatally poison more than 2,000 Americans annually, mostly from exposure to vehicle exhaust in enclosed or semi-enclosed areas. As with Toole, the majority of these deaths are suicides: however, a significant number of lives are lost each year due to unintentional poisonings, frequently during the winter months. Incomplete combustion of any fuel source can lead to excess levels of carbon monoxide. Napoleon lost soldiers to carbon-monoxide poisoning. They had hunkered down in wet thatch huts and dragged in free-standing wood-burning stoves for heat. In the home, malfunctioning heating systems claim the most victims, but other potentially troublesome problems include improperly vented gas stoves and water heaters. Carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin and displaces oxygen, an essential molecule for normal metabolism. Even small amounts of carbon monoxide can interfere with complex enzymatic mechanism, causing multiple subtle symptoms, The oxygen-dependent brain cells are particularly at risk. Symptoms can mimic many central nervous system problems - including vague "winter headaches," coordination problems and seizures. An ill person usually feels better several hours after leaving the source of carbon monoxide. The overwhelming numbers of less-than-fatal exposures to carbon monoxide go unrecognized, undiagnosed and unreported. This is exactly what happened to the Locantros. Attorney Monica Surprenant, a partner with Baldwin & Haspel, asked me to review the couple's medical records two years after Mr Locantro died. His widow granted me permission to tell their story. The Locantros' medical problems escalated after the infamous May 1995 flood rendered their floor furnace inoperable. A major appliance dealer sold and installed a new floor furnace with a "triple guarantee of satisfaction." The contract called for a new exhaust vent. "It put out a lot of smoke when we first turned it on, and I had to open all the windows. It also would make some funny noises at night. The installer came out to check it several times over the next two years. They always said everything was working fine," recalls Locantro. Mr Locantro developed flank and abdominal pain in February 1996. This was the first of several winter hospitalizations culminating with his death the following December. Other problems documented in his voluminous medical records included episodic mental confusion and agitation, generalized weakness, insomnia, abnormal gait, cough, palpitations, headache, and nausea. These symptoms intensified at home during cold periods when the heater was in use. After a day or two in the hospital, he would feel better. "I was also feeling bad during those times - fatigue, drowsiness, and no get up and go. I would stay at the hospital with my husband and always felt better after a day or two. I just thought I was getting lazy," says Locantro. After Philip died, his wife moved to Lafayette to live with a daughter. Locantro's health improved, and she yearned to return home. Her daughter suspected something was amiss with the New Orleans-area house and purchased a carbon- monoxide detector, which sounded an alarm shortly after the floor furnace kicked on. An independent examiner confirmed high carbon- monoxide levels in the house, with the highest reading near the furnace. Further investigation showed the installer had not vented the heater. Surprenant sued the company on Locantro's behalf. Residential carbon-monoxide alarms like the one Locantro's daughter used are an audible solution to a silent killer. Place these detectors in or near rooms with fuel-burning systems of any sort, including utility rooms or garages with gas dryers. Detectors are especially important for camps, cabins, and pool houses which seem to attract construction shortcuts and code violations. All gas heaters and appliances must be properly vented to prevent carbon monoxide buildup. Beware of any odors. Carbon monoxide is odorless, but smells of any sort from a gas appliance can also mean the unit is giving off carbon monoxide. Make sure horizontal vent pipes for fuel appliances slant slightly upward as they lead outdoors. Perfectly level vents are dangerous. Debris, including bird nests, can block working chimneys, causing carbon-monoxide buildup inside. Check and/or clean chimneys every year. Never use a gas oven or burners on a stove to heat a kitchen. And don't use a barbecue grill, portable camp stove, hibachi, kerosene space heaters or any other fuel-burning device indoors. Boat precautions abound. Install and maintain carbon-monoxide detectors, especially in enclosed cabins. During water activities, avoid areas where gasoline-powered engines vent exhaust. For more information, go to www.cdc.gov/nceh/airpollution/carbonmonoxide. XXX ARE YOU GLAD YOU ARE A LANDLORD? Sometimes reading through the questions on Mr Landlord's Q & A Forum, you may get the impression that landlords are pretty unhappy with the business and all the challenges we have to go through. Someone posted a question on the Q & A last week asking landlords if it is worth it? Overwhelmingly the response was YES! Here are just a couple of the landlord responses - "It's just like anything else, there's good days and bad days. All I have to do is look at the diminishing values of my mutual funds to know that the best thing we ever did was buy our 14 houses. Our net worth has quadrupled twice (octupled?) and our monthly income is now enough so that one of us could quit our job if we wanted, all in 6 years. I have two vacancies for the first time ever. It's stressful, but it will pass too. And I'm one of the ones who thinks 99% of tenants are great, I don't think they are all out to get me. You reap what you sow in this business. Good properties and good business equals good tenants and good returns. If we as a group weren't happy overall doing this, this site wouldn't exist. Lori, KY. "Yes, it is a hard business, and yes at times you can set your own hours and vacations, that's the one I like. I've taken 3 cruises this last year 2wks up the east coast to Canada. 2wks cruise the Med. sea. 12 days cruise through the Panama canal. I'm only 55 been retired now since 1989, my renters pay my way, life is sweet when your building is paid for. People look at you funny when you look like you could be their child and you say, I'm retired. James, CA. UMSL hosted the eighth annual What is a City? Conference in October. This year's theme was Sustainable Environments and Healthy Living. PH The speakers started with descriptions of sustainable building that keeps an affiliation with natural cues; daylight, plants, and seasons to improve health and well being of the people who spend so much of their time in the buildings. The Director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources said their agency would practice what they preach in building their new headquarters on the site of the old Missouri prison on the banks of the Missouri River. It will be a green building, meaning that every effort will be made to use sustainable materials, water efficiency and natural light. Two gentlemen from an architectural/engineering firm talked about water being the most important resource. There are alternatives to oil, but there is no alternative for water. Thus we need to concern ourselves with water rights and doing the right thing in distributing it fairly. Underground water supplies are easily contaminated, there are no laws against it and no way to purify subterranean water. They suggested that we need to elevate politics to get good public policy. Good design that uses the least amount of effort to change as few elements as possible would contribute to removing some of the stress of contemporary life. Sustainability, a healthy environment, renewability and efficient use of resources should be our goals. One of the firms' partners decreed that we cannot solve the problems with the people who created the problems Ted Heisel from Missouri Coalition for the Environment and Lewis Green from Great Rivers Environmental Law Center did not have any gratifying news. Mr Green told us air quality in the metro area remains bad because the law is extraordinarily complex, there is no enforcement by the executive branch, industry and government delays further prevent resolution. All of which may be traced to campaign financing. The powers that be cannot afford to offend their benefactors. Charles Nilon talked about Conservation in Inner Cities and a focus on environment justice problems. One of his studies showed that St Louisans prefer tidy vegetation, even when a more natural "wild" habitat is optimal. Another speaker Edith Chen showed empirical differences in the thoughts of high Social Economic Status individuals and those of low Social Economic Status. The high SES group felt they controlled their disease, those in the low SES group felt the doctor was responsible for their health. NEIGHBORHOOD LIFE INITIATIVES was Mayor Francis Slay’s topic at the last St Louis City RENTAL PROPERTY OWNERS meeting. A top priority of the Slay administration is ensuring that St Louis has strong, safe, healthy neighborhoods. This conviction is based on a very simple premise: People seeking a good , secure neighborhood in which to make a home, raise a family or start a business should be able to do so right here in the City of St Louis. And increasingly, people are doing just that. Many of our neighborhoods are experiencing a new surge of energy and optimism as families, singles and empty-nesters rediscover the joys and opportunities of city living. Two issues have haunted several of our residential areas. Those issues are problem properties (run-down buildings that pose a serious safety or health hazards) and nuisance crimes (misdemeanors and ordinance violations that disrupt neighborhoods) The mayor envisions a collaboration public agencies, neighborhood groups, the police department, and city hall to fight these twin perils. The success of the mayor’s initiatives will ultimately depend on the residents themselves. As the people of our neighborhoods work to keep their streets, sidewalks, alleyways and public places safe and clean, they will have the strong support of the police, the mayor’s office and the rest of city government. Tougher law enforcement will be the goal of six attorneys who will constitute The Problem Properties and Public Nuisance Crime Strike Force, who will create an ongoing “Dirty Dozen” list of known slumlords that will be a top priority for investigation and prosecution. The Municipal Courts are creating a special Problem Properties Court to fast track problem property and nuisance property cases that pose the greatest threats to neighborhoods. The Circuit Attorney’s office has established a Neighborhood Justice Project to focus exclusively on neighborhood nuisance crimes. The Police Department will dedicate one officer to the task of enforcing warrants issued in the Municipal Courts. Additionally, the Police Department will dedicate officers to work with the City Counselor’s Problem Properties Strike Force and the Circuit Attorney’s Community Prosecutor. Various preventative measures will be taken such as towing sweeps of derelict cars, withholding occupancy permits on properties that have serious exterior violations such as dilapidated garages and excessive debris, demolition of hazardous vacant buildings. The Citizens’ Service Bureau will specially track 60 specific problem property and nuisance crime related types of complaints. Neighborhood development is another segment of Neighborhood Life Initiatives. The administration will work with residents to market properties that are not beyond repair, combine parcels of property for new subdivision, turn historic buildings over to quality developers who specialize in the rehabilitation of historic homes, convert multifamily buildings into fewer units with more space. Calendar: Wed, 13 Nov Housing Obsolescence and Political Fragmentation in North St Louis County: Noon till 1 p.m. at UMSL, Millennium Student Center, 8001 Natural Bridge Rd, Free (314)516-5273 Th, 21 Nov Community-Based Initiatives for Neighborhood Stabilization, SLU, McDonnell Douglas Hall, 3450 Lindell Blvd, Rm 1016, Free 314.726.0098 Tu, 17 Dec, Dutch Treat Lunch, Feasting Fox, Grand & Meramec, 11:30 a.m. XXXX The Articles contained in this news letter and on the stlouislandlord.com web site are included for the informational, educational and occasional amusement value the might provide. Articles are not included to represent the definitive answer to any situation. They are not intended to provide legal advice. And they are not intended to represent the views of any board member or general member of the Carondelet/Holly Hills Landlords' Association. Read, Enjoy. Use what you can and leave the rest. If you have any questions, comments or story ideas Please contact Patty at 314-352-9140
Place: Southern Commercial Bank - 5515 S. Grand |