Legislative Update - Feb 9th 2014 - House Judiciary committee voted mostly against landlords this week.

Howdee everyone,

In its executive session the House Judiciary committee voted mostly against landlords this week.  Details below.

Most important is HB1409.  We need EVERY landlord of NH to contact their representative NOW and ask them to oppose this horrendous bill.  In a few days the House will vote on passing the bill.

…….…….…….
Short summary of HB1409. (Full detail later on).
Tenants that receive housing assistance of a variety of kinds (Section 8, Veterans, possibly others) & victims of domestic violence, sexual assault & stalking will all now be a “Protected Class” which means they are protected from discrimination.

To get this protection a person only need call the police or violence center once (whether their claim is true or not) and now they are a protected class for life!

Several law officers have said that it often happens in divorces and violence cases that both victim and perpetrator make calls and claims against each other.  Now the perpetrator is a protected class.

Further we have been instructed that if a tenant’s bad credit or bad landlord references are because of the violence then denying them for bad credit or bad landlord references would be discrimination.

So in essence a tenant can “solve” their bad credit, bad landlord references with one phone call to a violence center.

Since many landlords will hesitate to not accept a protected class in fear of an anti-discrimation lawsuit, which makes the state essentially forcing landlords to accept both Section 8, Violence Victims and Perpetrators.

(Did you know that some insurance companies have an “internal policy” that they will not write property insurance if there are more than a certain percentage of Section 8 tenants).

The Judicial Committee voted 11 to 7 to pass this bill.  Next it goes to the full house in a few days.  We need EVERY landlord to call & email their Representative (not Senator just yet), educate them on this horrendous bill and ask them to vote against it so it stops right here before crossing over to the Senate.

Link to Bill Text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2014/HB1409.html
To find both your Representative & Senator goto http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/wml.aspx

CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/ and click  “Find Your Representatives”

 
See more info in Summaries & Full Detail for each category further below. (includes property owner position, contact info, Talking points, and more).(to jump right to bill detail, use Control-F, Find).

Executive Sessions: (Bills being debated & decided)HB1409, Antidiscrimination Section 8, Domestic Violence
Ought To Pass 11 to 7

HB1274, Quarterly Semi-annual Rent
Ought To Pass 13 to 5

HB1336, $500 Fine For Failing To Register Landlord Agent
Amended Ought To Pass  12 to 7
Amendment says towns will administer and receive the fees

HB1214, Termination of Tenancy
ITL 14 to 4  (bill died)


This week:02/12/2014 at 10:15 AM    LOB 102
SB347, Fines related to Landlord Agent Registration
Level of Response: Attend hearings, Email & Call Legislators
Property Owner Position: Against

02/13/2014 at 10:00 AM    LOB 301
HB1196, Special Circumstances To Waive Interest On Unpaid Taxes
Level of Response: You Decide
Property Owner Position: LimitedImpact; You Decide

02/13/2014 at 10:30 AM    LOB 301
HB1171, Veterans Property Tax Credit
Level of Response: You Decide
Property Owner Position: You Decide

02/13/2014 at 02:00 PM    LOB 301
HB1333, Eliminate Fraudulent Use of Elderly Property Tax Credit
Level of Response: Email Legislators
Property Owner Position: For


Next week:None scheduled so far
 
Further below is:Full details on all bills above
 (Which includes property owner position, contact info, talking points, and more)

Love & Light,
Nick Norman
RPOA Director of Legislative Affairs
==============================================
Full details on all bills above:HB1274, Quarterly Semi-annual Rent
01/21/2014 at 11:00 AM    LOB 208
Title: relative to the quarterly or semi-annual payment of rent.

Summary: Allows a landlord to enter into a residential lease requiring a tenant to pay rent either quarterly or semi-annually without violating the security deposit statute where a landlord can not ask for more than one month's rent.
 
We think the bill should also include a provision that a landlord may accept an offer by a tenant to prepay more than one month's rent.  It rarely happens, but some people when they receive their tax refund want to pay ahead when they are moving into a new apartment or over come bad credit or some other application default by prepaying a large portion of rent. Prepayment of rent should be just that and not considered a security deposit.
 
The bill merely clears up an ambiguity for landlords who want quarterly or semi-annual payments. We anticipate this only happens with expensive high end rentals, or seasonal rentals.

Property Owner Position: For

Link to Committee Info: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/committeedetails.aspx?code=H10

Email to Committee:
To: ~HouseJudiciaryCommittee@leg.state.nh.us
Subject: HB1274

Link to Bill Text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2014/HB1274.html
Analysis Stated in Bill:

Talking Points:
See Summary & this greatly affects college communities.  In Durham, Dover, Keene, etc., you have landlords routinely taking a full semester's rent up front.  The bill was intended to give them an option to legally allow this kind of option.

There is also the situation where someone with bad credit has a tax refund, personal injury settlement or other lump sum and the landlord might be willing to take a chance on the tenant if the landlord were permitted to due so under the law.  There is an amendment which would allow landlords to require 3 months or more rent to be paid up front.  With the amendment (passed by House Judiciary committee) landlords would be allowed to legally handle these situations.
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HB1336, $500 Fine For Failing To Register Landlord Agent
01/21/2014 at 01:00 PM    LOB 208
Title: relative to the landlord's agent requirement.

Summary: Imposes a fine of $500 for any landlord who fails to register a Landlord Agent in the city or town of the property

Property Owner Position: Against

Link to Committee Info: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/committeedetails.aspx?code=H10

Email to Committee:
To: ~HouseJudiciaryCommittee@leg.state.nh.us
Subject: HB1336

Link to Bill Text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2014/HB1336.html
Analysis Stated in Bill:

Talking Points:
We need to address this bill and oppose it in its current form.  The bill does not state who enforces it, nor who receives the fine.  Further, if a landlord is new, doesn't even know about this requirement, and does not register he/she is subject to this expensive fine.  That landlord should be given notice to register by the city or town and a grace period before being subject to the fine.  Should the broker who sells a building to a landlord be required to inform the landlord of the registration requirement?  Should there be some notice or form at a property closing? Perhaps the City or Town must be held responsible to notify all property owners of this law.

There have been several attempts to repeal this Landlord Agent requirement. Many towns do not even know the requirement exists.  This is a crazy fine for a law that should not even exist.

Lastly, if this should go through the fine is way too expensive and should be $50, then $100, the cap at $200 on some type of time line to respond.
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HB1409, Antidiscrimination Section 8, Domestic Violence
01/21/2014 at 01:30 PM    LOB 208
Title: expanding the law against discrimination to prohibit housing discrimination against recipients of rental assistance and victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.

Summary: Proposed and drafted by NHLA (tenant advocates) expanding the law against discrimination to prohibit housing discrimination against recipients of rental assistance (any kind of assistance including Section 8) and any one who claims to be a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.  Note: merely making an unverified call to the police or violence center would constitute some one now in a protected class.

Property Owner Position: Against

Link to Committee Info: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/committeedetails.aspx?code=H10

Email to Committee:
To: ~HouseJudiciaryCommittee@leg.state.nh.us
Subject: HB1409

Link to Bill Text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2014/HB1409.html
Analysis Stated in Bill:

Talking Points:
WE NEED EVERYONE INVOLED.
This bill makes two significant changes by adding two distinct and separate categories to RSA 354-A.

First addition to the protected classes (protected from discrimination) is any person who has merely reported to law enforcement, a victim’s violence center, or obtained a temporary or permanent protective order.
 
The second addition to RSA 354-A the protected classes (protected from discrimination) is for people who receive rental assistance..

We met with NHLA about this bill and were told two of the reasons NHLA put forward the bill are:
1. NHLA was told that people in these classes have difficulty finding apartments. However, NHLA has not provided any statistics to back this up.  Further people have 60 days to locate an apartment that can be extended up to 120 days.  If they work as hard at finding an apartment as the members of the legislature do during a session they should be able to locate an apartment within the allotted time frames.
 
We were told the victims of domestic violence sometimes have trouble getting apartments because they come with bad landlord references.

2. The second reason is that NHLA feels all tenants should be able to live where they want (despite their bad landlord references) and that these classes of tenants would  have a better chance of improving theirs situations if they could live in better areas.
 
Note that rental assistance vouchers have rental amount limits as to how much can be spent on rent.
Does this mean that all public housing that concentrates poor people in one project should be eliminated?
 
Notice that non-profit agencies are exempt.  Why?

There are so many problems with this bill it is crazy.  Here goes a listing of some.
1. Abusing the system by tenants
To obtain this protection against discrimination one would merely need to report abuse to any law enforcement officer or a violence center.    Making a lie to a victims violence center is not a crime,.  Many people have no problem not telling the police the  truth to get what they want, or filing a false affidavit to obtain a temporary order.  Just reporting the domestic violence or stalking is enough.  There is no judicial review or any determination of truth to obtain this protection.  It is easy to abuse the good intentions of the bill to the detriment of the landlords.
 
Many times at an apartment couples are arguing and the police are called. Now that arguing couple is a protected class and you can’t evict because an agency was called. This is really poorly written and will create another opportunity for a professional tenant to get away without paying rent. A landlord should be able to evict if there is a problem tenant. If the abuser keeps coming back and starting an augment the landlord and neighboring tenants will be stuck with the problem tenant and lose the good law abiding ones because of this law.  A “professional” tenant could make good money here.

2. Perpetrators allowed back in by victim.
Second: many times the victims allow the perpetrator into the new apartment. Other tenants to be in danger if new tenant who is victim of DV lets abuser back into their living space.  What if one of the tenants are harmed by the perpetrator.  Can the landlord now be held some how liable because the landlord could not do anything to eliminate the perpetrator?
If this happens, landlords have limited ability to evict unless they are witnesses to new abuse or disturbance of the peace.  The eviction requires a 30 days notice plus all the time the courts take  so it could take 2 to 3 months at a minimum to evict the perpetrator.  Mean time all the other tenants in the building who are subject to the fights, generally are reluctant to call police, and may move on account of the continued problem.  Now the landlord is only left with the troubled unit and will likely have trouble rerenting because of the troublesome unit.
 
Ultimately we need to stop this bill entirely.  If the bill moves forward, it needs to provide safeguards against abuse of the protections for victims, and needs to provide a way for a landlord to have the perpetrator removed quickly from the rented unit if the perpetrator was not on the lease or rental agreement, or a tenant. Only victims who have obtained a permanent order and have maintained the order should have this protection.

3. Section 8 tenants are more costly for landlords although landlords by HUD rules can not charge more for them.
a. more paper work.  The Section 8 lease and contract is very large with an extreme number of clauses.  Does this mean you have to except all the provisions that this government body dreams up and the landlord as no control over.
b.   must take time for initial inspection
c.   annual inspections
d.   annual financial reviews of the tenants if not more often, which changes the amount paid by the housing authority and the tenant.  Increases bookkeeping time and chances of errors.
e.   More regulations, and different standards such as with lead paint renovations which would now have to meet more stringent HUD rules.
Did you know that having a housing assistance tenant forces you to follow HUD RRP rules instead of EPA RRP rules.  The HUD rules are more restrictive and expense to follow which will absolutely increase your expenses and create more vacancy.
f.   Need housing authority approval to raise rents, and there are limitations on rent increases based upon what is allowed by HUD
g.  Sec 8 is funded by what has been a disfuctional  Congress.  Who knows what they will continue to fund.
h   Landlords should not be forced to have too many sec 8 tenants, if funding is reduced the landlord could face fancial             ruin.
i. This will open all our rental properties to having to be up to government (HUD) codes including at least annual inspections, not just current building code.

The bill gives people on sec 8 & any type of housing assistance greater rights than people who work and pay rent from their paychecks.

4.  Limited ability to screen new tenants.
This will force you to accept Section 8 tenants.  You will not be allowed to deny some one your apartment if they have bad landlord references or bad credit if those references and credit are ""caused"" by the domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.  Maybe this could be stretched to say the reasons that cause a tenant to be eligible for Section 8 are the reasons for their bad credit.  If so landlords could not refuse a Section 8 tenant because of their bad credit.  Could that be extended to say the could not be refuse because of bad past rental payments.

5. More legal battles to fight.
It happens often that a landlord who never had any intent to discriminate winds up spending hours and hours and thousands of dollars in an effort to convince an investigator of their innocence.  How could you know that some one is a victim of domestic violence  or if they have reported domestic violence or verify of these?  What does that mean?  To be safe from a descrimination lawsuit a landlord must simply accept anybody?   This could easily open up many “frivolous” lawsuits against landlords.

6. Potential issues with property insurance
Some insurance companies won’t do insurance if Section 8 more than 20%-50%.

This is a terrible bill for landlords.  There is so much to talk about here that it will take us a while to put together all the notes required.  We are even still collecting and summarizing notes against the bill.
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HB1214, Termination of Tenancy
01/21/2014 at 02:30 PM    LOB 208
Title: relative to grounds for termination of tenancy.

Summary: Allows a landlord to evict a tenant based upon the expiration of a lease or the rightful termination of the term of the lease or rental agreement.

Property Owner Position: For

Link to Committee Info: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/committeedetails.aspx?code=H10

Email to Committee:
To: ~HouseJudiciaryCommittee@leg.state.nh.us
Subject: HB1214

Link to Bill Text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2014/HB1214.html
Analysis Stated in Bill:

Talking Points:
Surrounding states have this already as law.  A lease is a contract – by law it has to have a beginning and an end date.  The tenant can have the end date as the last day, the landlord should have that option as well.

It is a short one line bill that would overrule the NH Supreme Court case that says that Landlords have to have a valid reason to evict a tenant, as set for the RSA 540:2.
 
There are many instances where we need to evict a problematic tenant where it can be difficult to prove the facts needed to evict.  For instance the loud bully who other tenants do not want to testify against. (How about the member of a motor cycle gang, not club, but gang.) If this bill passes, we could evict that tenant without involving other residents of the building.
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SB347, Fines related to Landlord Agent Registration
02/12/2014 at 10:15 AM    LOB 102
Title: relative to municipal enforcement of land use ordinances.

Summary: This bill amends the statute dealing with municipal citations so that any defendant who fails to respond to a citation is subject to fines and penalties set forth in RSA 676:17 ($275 for the first offense and $550 for each subsequent offense, as well as daily fines, attorney fees and more).
It also makes any person who fails to file a statement of a designated agent pursuant to RSA 540:1-c subject to a fine not to exceed $100.


Property Owner Position: Against

Link to Committee Info: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/Senate/committees/committee_details.aspx?cc=S27

Email to Committee:
To: jeanie.forrester@leg.state.nh.us; bette.lasky@leg.state.nh.us; NH.Sen.Pierce@gmail.com; nancy.stiles@leg.state.nh.us; dboutin1465@comcast.net; ;
Subject: SB347

Link to Bill Text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2014/SB0347.html
Analysis Stated in Bill:

Talking Points:
This is less than the house bill of $500, and just like the house bill does not state who enforces it, nor who receives the fine.  Further, if a landlord is new, doesn't even know about this requirement, and does not register he/she is subject to these fines.  That landlord should be given notice to register by the city or town and a grace period before being subject to the fine.  Should the broker who sells a building to a landlord be required to inform the landlord of the registration requirement?  Should there be some notice or form at a property closing? Perhaps the City or Town must be held responsible to notify all property owners of this law.

There have been several attempts to repeal this Landlord Agent requirement. Many towns do not even know the requirement exists.  They can look up assessment records/purchase records to find address for service.
This law that should not even exist.
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HB1196, Special Circumstances To Waive Interest On Unpaid Taxes
02/13/2014 at 10:00 AM    LOB 301
Title: allowing town and cities to waive a portion of the interest due on late property tax payments in special or extraordinary circumstances.

Summary: This bill would grant authority to local governing body of any municipality to waive a portion interest accrued on unpaid taxes upon request of the person liable for the taxes, when the governing body determines that there are special or extraordinary circumstance that require such a waiver.

Property Owner Position: LimitedImpact; You Decide

Link to Committee Info: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/committeedetails.aspx?code=H18

Email to Committee:
To: ~HouseMunicipalandCountyGovt@leg.state.nh.us
Subject: HB1196

Link to Bill Text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2014/HB1196.html
Analysis Stated in Bill:

Talking Points:
The bill does not give any guidance as to what are special or extraordinary circumstances, not does it specify what portion of the taxes can be waived.
 
There are circumstances where the interest should be waived, for instance the tax bill was wrong and the property owner was over taxed, and the property owner paid the correct amount of the tax.  It is not at all clear if the financial circumstances or health of a property owner would be such special circumstances.  Because the bill is so unclear, we do not feel that we should support it.  We also do not think that we should oppose it, as one of us could end up benefiting by such a bill.  You decide.
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HB1171, Veterans Property Tax Credit
02/13/2014 at 10:30 AM    LOB 301
Title: relative to eligibility for the veterans' property tax credit.

Summary: This bill would give a property tax credit to every state resident  who is in active duty in the US military for at least 4 years and has served in an armed conflict for not less than 90 days.  The tax credit would continue after an honorable discharge from the military for life.

Property Owner Position: You Decide

Link to Committee Info: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/committeedetails.aspx?code=H18

Email to Committee:
To: ~HouseMunicipalandCountyGovt@leg.state.nh.us
Subject: HB1171

Link to Bill Text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2014/HB1171.html
Analysis Stated in Bill:

Talking Points:
The bill is a ""Thank you"" for risking life and limb to our current forces and combat veterans.

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HB1333, Eliminate Fraudulent Use of Elderly Property Tax Credit
02/13/2014 at 02:00 PM    LOB 301
Title: relative to the elderly property tax exemption.

Summary: The bill would not allow the elderly tax exemption if the house was being used by someone who moved into the elderly person’s home and had income above certain limits. It is to prevent someone who has income from moving in with an elderly person and avoid paying his or her fair share of taxes.

Property Owner Position: For

Link to Committee Info: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/committeedetails.aspx?code=H18

Email to Committee:
To: ~HouseMunicipalandCountyGovt@leg.state.nh.us
Subject: HB1333

Link to Bill Text: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2014/HB1333.html
Analysis Stated in Bill:

Talking Points:
This bill would reduce the elderly tax exemption if the owner shares the house with someone who is not the owners spouse and is over 18 with a personal income of over amounts set by the local community, but not less than $13,400 for a single person or $20,400 for a married person.
 
Since exemptions raise taxes for everyone else, and this bill only effects people who the legislature deems to have sufficient funds to pay part if not all the property taxes, we should support the bill.