City sets rent ceiling for landlords, tenants

With most leases ending in June, students living off campus next year may still be looking for a location to reside.
But some students do not know what goes on behind the scenes in landlord-municipality relationships and should be cautious so as to not be taken advantage of by landlords, said Rutgers College senior Edith Hannigan, who lives off-campus.
At a Feb. 18 city council meeting, city officials proposed an amendment to the rent control ordinance, which will prevent many rent problems between tenants and their landlords.
“Units that might otherwise not be rent controlled would fall under the rent control ordinance,” New Brunswick Economic Development Director Glenn Patterson said.
The changes would close a loophole preventing landlords from claiming more than one piece of property as their primary place of residency, an act that was possible under the old statute, he said.
City Spokesman Bill Bray said under the current rent control ordinance, homeowner-occupiers of two or three family houses can rent out the other available units of the house. But since the owner also lives there, the rent is exempt from a price ceiling.
By claiming more than one property as primary residency, landlords escape the city’s rent control regulations on multiple sites, which isn’t allowed, Patterson said.
“If someone has multiple properties that they own and they are claiming that they are owner-occupiers in multiple places, they have to show some proof as to how they are doing that,” Patterson said. “Basically what this amendment says is that you can only have one principle place of residence. You have to pick one.”
There is no intrusive inspection to prove occupancy but all multiple property owner-occupiers must show documentation such as driver’s license addresses, voter registration addresses, utility bills and other documents, proving the owner is using the property on a regular basis, he said.
“It’s modeled on criteria that are used in other rent-controlled jurisdictions so it’s nothing groundbreaking here,” Patterson said. “[We’re] just trying to clarify what it is to be [the] principle place of residence so people can’t skate around the rent control regulations.”
Rent control is a city regulation that controls how much landlords can increase their rents for tenants annually, Bray said.
“Landlords cannot just assign any rent they want to an apartment. Rent increases are capped, and that percentage is determined annually by the rent control board,” he said.
At the meeting, City Attorney William Hamilton said people can still own as many houses as they want but only one, the principle place of residency, can be exempt from the city’s rent caps.
“I think it’s a really good move because a lot of students don’t know their full rights and responsibilities or those of their landlords,” said Hannigan, who also works for the Office of Off-Campus Housing.
Hannigan said she hopes this makes living off campus more affordable and prevents landlords from illegally raising rents for students.

3 comments

Bradley

Sat Feb 28 2009 09:22

It is quite refreshing to read a missive from a person who can't spell yet feels it is ok to disparage the writing ability of another person. Grow a brain and a conscience, please.

Your name

Mon Feb 23 2009 12:22

The City has the right to control rents - what a frightening thought. I wonder how many people would want to buy a second home with city rent controls in place. A lot of people buy secondary properties for investment purposes. They do this to plan for their retiement, etc. Not an evil thing to do at all. And if rent controls discourages people from buying secondary homes for rental / investment purposes how does that effect the overall re-sale value of other homes in the area ? Would this lead to lower real estate values ? Ciy cost goes up and they raise taxes. What do landlords do when their costs go up ? Sometimes landlords get stuck with a bad tenant who does not pay the rent and destroy the place on their way out. Who re-coups these costs ?

Should all homeowners be willing to pay for this rent control through lower property values to protect students / tenants or is it better to allow a free market and encourage more people to buy up old homes renovate them (generating income for the local economy) and create more rental units and competition causing rents to actually fall (as the rules of supply and demand will dictate). I believe that rent controls is a forced housing subsidy paid by the private sector - landowners and homeowners.

DGK

Mon Feb 23 2009 08:12

"...location to reside..." "...so as not to be..." "...from illegally raising..." You need to work on your writing, here. Needlessly cluttering the text with words and over-using adjectives is not good writing, and if you want to go into news as a career will turn off employers in the media such as myself. That doesn't mean you have to make it stupid (which, unfortunately, they also prefer) but you're showing your hand and making yourself part of the story. Also, you speak of "landlords" as some detached entity like the weather without interviewing one or at least making it clear that you tried to interview one to get both sides of the story. Land lords are still human beings. It's also something that you'd feel the need to point out that landlords "can still own as many houses as the want." Again, that's not about "landlords." This is a right as citizens to own property. If anyone thinks there are limits on that, they need a real education on it.

Well doen on the proper use of brackets, though.

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