New legislation to protect local renters

Town officials in Medford and Somerville are drafting legislation that would require official inspections when landlords rent their buildings to new tenants, three weeks after a Tufts student died in a fire in an illegal loft.

The proposed ordinance would make landlords "responsible for scheduling an inspection with the Building Commissioner prior to allowing the dwelling unit to be reoccupied by a new occupant or occupants." For each inspection, landlords would have to pay a $75 inspection fee. If a property owner rented to a new tenant without scheduling an inspection first, he or she would be fined $100 for every day that an occupant inhabits an un-inspected living space.

"When you have a tragedy like this, it causes concern not only in the Tufts community but also in Medford and Somerville," said Medford Mayor Michael McGlynn, who drafted the legislation along with Somerville Mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay and Tufts officials. The new ordinance will affect all landlords in both communities.

"Both Mayor Gay and myself felt that it wasn't effective to do it [on] one side of the border," McGlynn said.

Concern over the safety of local homes was sparked after a Tufts junior, Wendy Carman, died in her garage-top room at on Harris Rd. in Medford. The room, which was connected to the main house by a breezeway, did not have enough exits or the requisite fireproofing to be habitable, and there was no permit for the structure.

Today, the office of Medford's Building Commissioner plans to release the results of the fire investigation. "We'll announce at that time whether we're going forward with civil or criminal complaints," McGlynn said. The owner of the property, Frederick Shaffer of Reading, could be subject to a $1,000 fine and up to one year in jail for the violation.

Tufts helped draft of the legislation and the results of inspections of student apartments will be forwarded to the University. "This puts students in a safe environment, and secondly, gives parents peace of mind," McGlynn said.

Though the ordinance has been drafted, it is unclear where the cities will raise the funding and personnel for increased inspections. "It's a proposal _ we haven't worked out the specifics," Medford Building Commissioner Paul Mochi said. "When it gets passed, we'll take the next step." Before becoming law, the proposed legislation would have to be approved by the Medford and Somerville city councils, something Mochi is confident will happen. Inspections have always been available for rental units, this new law would make them mandatory.

But the proposed inspection requirement has already attracted opposition from landlords.

Mark Leger, the eastern vice president of the Massachusetts Rental Housing Association (MRHA) said that the current inspection regulations were adequate. "Already under the state building code, there's regulations that every five to seven years, cities and towns are supposed to go in and inspect," he said. "If there's egress now, there should be egress in five years."

Leger also worried about the logistics of instituting the new legislation and said that inspectors might be overburdened as busy moving days, such as Sept. 1, approached. "How many tenants are going to have to end up staying in a hotel because the inspectors can't get through the workload?" He also asked whether a change of roommate would necessitate an inspection.

But landlords, it seems, are primarily concerned with the cost of the inspections. "[Gay] is looking for money in all the wrong places," said a Somerville landlord who asked not to be identified.

But McGlynn does not fear for the financial health of local property owners. "I'm sure landlords aren't going to be pleased, it's another step they have to go through," McGlynn said. "But I think those who care about public safety should welcome the ordinance. Let's face it _ people who are renting those structures around Tufts are getting substantial rents."

Some property owners already perform self-inspections when units are re-occupied. According to one landlord's assistant, her boss inspects the buildings "to make sure that the apartment is returned to him in the condition it was rented, and for the safety of the renters and for his own peace of mind."

McGlynn said the relationship between landlord and local government will change if the ordinance is effective. "What it's going to do for the landlord is give the landlord peace of mind that his tenants are in a safe environment," McGlynn said. "The problem is that people look at the Building Commissioner as their enemy. The Building Commissioner makes sure you're in a safe environment."