Dear Vermont Legislators and fellow Vermonters,

The objective of this letter and petition is for the Vermont Landlords to be heard and help educate lawmakers by exposing the goals of several proposed bills and current laws. It is clear the majority of our legislative body believes landlords can meet their financial obligations without collecting rent from tenants while being expected to continue providing safe and secure housing.   

One must realize that the lifeblood of any community is its housing supply. Any community, regardless of size, depends on landlords to ensure an adequate supply of housing. A landlord's survival depends on their ability to collect rent from their tenants to meet their financial obligations. Landlords, for the most part, provide several significant and fundamental benefits to society.

Unfortunately, it seems as though there are some elements in society that wish to treat the Landlord as the enemy, by limiting or attempting to eliminate privately held housing through legislation that makes it impossible for private landlords to continue functioning as business owners. 

First, landlords assume the responsibility of providing safe, clean, housing for the many people who depend on them. Secondly, private landlords contribute to their local communities by paying full real estate property taxes. 

In contrast, public housing authorities are exempt from property tax meaning the community does not receive any tax income from these operations. Some public housing agencies, although certainly not the majority, give municipalities a yearly payment in lieu of their property tax payment, however, that payment is just a small fraction of the property tax they would owe if they were obligated to pay the full tax as required by private landlords. 

Presently the only thing that encourages a nonperforming tenant to maintain their contractual obligations with their landlord is the fear that they can and will be evicted. Most states recognize this fact and allow for shorter evictions. Vermont has the most unfriendly landlord and tenant law in the nation. This is not an assertion I make simply because I am a landlord. Our reputation as a state that does not support private landlords is known well beyond our borders. As a result of this unfairness, it is known there are property owners who leave their apartments vacant rather than taking a chance with a problem tenant who is now difficult to evict. Below are highlights from a recent article by Agnes A. Gaddis. The link to the full article follows. 

                    

Last Updated: January 17, 2024

Each state has specific rules and regulations concerning rental property. Needless to say, some states favor landlords more than others. That’s why the location of your rental property is so crucial. In this article, we will discuss what makes a state landlord friendly and then look at the most and the least landlord friendly states throughout the United States in 2024.
·            TOP 10 LEAST LANDLORD FRIENDLY STATES IN 2024

·        We’ve seen some of the best states for landlords, so here are the states that are most tenant friendly in 2024.

·        1. Vermont

·        Vermont is one of the least landlord friendly states of 2024. The state’s property tax rate of 1.82% is the fourth highest in the US. If a landlord fails to make repairs, tenants may pay for the repairs themselves and deduct the cost from their rent payments or withhold rent altogether.

·        Eviction for unpaid rent must follow a 14-day written notice from the landlord. Landlords must give a 60-day notice before evicting tenants whose lease has expired. Evicting a tenant in Vermont can take four to seven months and may even take longer if the tenant requests a jury trial.     

The full article may be viewed here https://realwealth.com/learn/landlord-friendly-states/.

 

The following comments were added by Lawrence “Larry” Lozier, a Vermont Landlord of 36 years.

Very few landlords ever see a dime of the judgment that is awarded to them. The rent money that may get paid into the court often ends up going to attorney fees. Additionally, tenants now receive FREE legal representation by Legal Aid. This has presented another hardship for landlords by driving up the legal fees for the landlord, and it is also making it harder for landlords to find lawyers wanting to take on eviction cases.

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This year’s legislature has seen the introduction of several new bills aimed at once again undermining the ability of private landlords to continue to provide what our own Governor has deemed vital and badly needed housing for tenants. With the current housing situation as it stands in our state fewer and fewer residents can afford a place to live. Our elected officials should be working together with landlords to help our citizens rather than introducing bills that continually work to the contrary. For that reason, I believe that all the new bills should be rejected by the legislature. I have included links to each of the pending bills so you can further educate yourself. 

H-135-An act relating to capping annual rent increases and security deposits.

H-276-An act relating to creating a rental housing registry.

H-301-An act relating to providing protections against no-cause eviction.

H-430-An act relating to creating a tenant right of first refusal to purchase a residential rental building.

H-616-An act relating to providing protections against eviction.

H-617-An act relating to residential rental application fees.

H-619-An act relating to creating reciprocal rights to landlord-tenant attorney’s fees and expenses.

If anything, Vermont should be working to bring its policies around evictions and other landlord-tenant laws more in sync with other states across the nation. 

When legislators take away the only tools the landlord has to be successful it is counterproductive to the very people and communities that the landlord serves. Special care should be taken by the governing authority not to take away so many of the landlord’s rights that they cannot keep providing the housing that is so badly needed in our state. Removing landlord rights restricts and, in some instances, eliminates, the ability of the landlord to enforce adherence to the rules set forth in their lease. It also encourages tenant irresponsibility and unruly behavior as there are few enforceable consequences for undesirable actions. 

It is a well-known fact that in Vermont, our lenient judicial system favors the tenant. Unfortunately, leniency, long eviction times, and continual attacks on what are currently very limited landlord rights only harm the very individuals the governing bodies in our state claim to protect. The present system forces higher rents as landlords are forced to cover the expenses necessary to continue housing non-paying tenants while eviction cases wind their way through the system in what is inevitably a long and tedious process, while non-paying tenants continue to occupy units that could be utilized by paying tenants in need of housing. If landlords had the security of knowing they could have shorter evictions, they could possibly relax their move in restrictions, knowing that they could evict and gain possession of their units in a reasonable length of time without losing several thousand dollars and six to eight months of rent, thus opening the door for broader housing opportunities. As you can see more stringent rules favoring the tenant is counterproductive to the very people that the system is trying to help.

 

A Landlords Golden Rule 

No landlord would ever want to evict a good performing tenant.

There is little doubt that the current system does little to favor the landlord and future provisions in the above-mentioned bills are designed to encourage the demise of the private landlord. There are Landlords that have already lost their buildings as a result and more may follow. We are calling on our Vermont lawmakers to adjust any new legislation to reflect fairness to landlords and tenants alike.