The South Jacksonville Village Board of Trustees heard directly from a half dozen members of the area Landlord’s Association Thursday night in regards to delinquent utility payments and registering contact information for their properties with Village Hall.
The landlord association expressed a lack of communication and a mistrust for a landlord registry being kept at Village Hall. Village officials say there has been a history of backlogged water bills from tenants that have left rental property with no ways to collect on the delinquent amounts, as neither the landlord or the former tenants could be contacted.
Village President Dick Samples, who says he was once a part of the landlord association, says the mistrust of a registry lies around some age old fear of either having property inspected or the rumor that annual fee would be charged to be a landlord: “In this day and age, if you have a problem with a landlord, you call somebody and somebody is going to come inspect the property – the health department, whoever. Things have changed in the last 6-10 years over inspections. Landlords were worried that there was going to be a tax or fees charged if you owned a rental property. They thought somebody was going to come in, and let’s say, charge you $50 a year – I’m just using a number here – or charge you X amount of dollars to register your property. We have no intentions in the village of charging people to be a landlord, or inspecting people’s property unless there is a complaint.”
Samples vowed to the members of the landlord association in attendance on Thursday night that better communication would be opened moving forward. As for delinquent bills, Village Treasurer Mindy Olsen says that shut off notices would be given to both the landlord and to the tenant moving forward. However, she says that there are about three dozen properties whose owners are unable to be reached.
Samples says that the village is going to continue the costly process of placing liens on property and shutting off service to properties who are delinquent: “We currently, if you owe a water bill and don’t pay it, we do put a lien against your property. Now, the lien, the only thing that effects truthfully is that if someone went to sell that property and there is a lien against, the village would get paid. Liens have to be renewed, I think, every 7 years so it’s on a renewable deal. Our biggest thing is that if we shut the water off, it won’t be turned back on until the [past due balance] is paid in full. Again, I don’t like the fact that we have to shut the water off, but the landlords basically told us tonight that if the village has a problem with one of their tenants and they don’t pay the bill to shut them off. I heard them say this tonight. I interpreted it that way to my knowledge as to what was being said. Guess what? That’s what is going to happen.”
Samples says a revision to the village’s ordinance regarding tenant-landlord responsibilities and the village’s responsibilities are when it comes to providing utility service to make things more thorough and clear. It also will more clearly define the mechanism of turning on and shutting off service. Samples says there is no intention of raising any fees at this time.
As for the controversial registry of landlords, the registry of landlord contact information will be voluntary and kept on file to contact landlords in case of delinquent bills or there are problematic tenants at a particular property.