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Judge Balbick: City can take enforcement action against tenants for code violations

By Howard B. Owens

One of the complaints of landlords in Batavia is that when there is a problem with a property, the city rarely issues a violation notice against the tenant.

It's usually the landlord that gets hauled into court.

It doesn't have to be that way, according to City Court Judge Robert Balbick.

Balbick spoke with members of the Neighborhood Improvement Committee on Thursday afternoon.

"Under city code they are both responsible," Balbick said. "I don’t choose who the defendant is. That's the choice of the city."

Council members Sam Barone, Rose Mary Christian and Bob Bialkowski were on hand for the meeting.

Balbick told them they could amend city code to require tenants to be included in any enforcement action.

Batavia landlord Terry Platt is on the committee, and he said he would certainly like to see Batavia become known as a place where, if you're a tenant and you cause a code violation, you're going to be held responsible.

“If we could work toward the tenant area and let the tenants in this city know that they are going to be held responsible, then over a five- to 10-year period this city could be just like Stafford -- Judge Muskopf set a precedence there," Platt said. "When you drive through Stafford today, you still slow down. He set a precedence. (Tenants will learn) 'Hey, don’t do that because you’ll get nailed in this city.'"

Balbick also suggested that landlords could call police for some enforcement actions against tenants.

“I’ve looked at pictures and the things that happened in apartments and it borders on being criminal," Balbick said. "Some of the damage isn’t just wear-and-tear on carpets. Some of the damage is holes in the walls and broken windows. You have your civil remedy but people may consider other remedies, such as going to the police. And have the police department address it as criminal mischief."

Platt said he's tried that route and the response from the police is always, "it's a civil matter."

Platt said 10 years ago, he and his crew were in an apartment doing work and they found a pound of marijuana. He said he told police and the police didn't want to take action, since Platt hadn't seen it actually being carried into the apartment.

So, Platt said he went to the tenant and told him he had two choices -- stay and he was calling the cops or move out.

“I knew the cops wouldn’t do anything, but I knew he’d get out if I said that, and he did," Platt said. "I wanted him off my property because I didn’t want that on my property.”

A good portion of Balbick's conversation was directed at explaining how court works for code-enforcement matters.

Disclosure: Terry Platt is my residential landlord.

John Roach

It's been over 4 years since Councilman Frank Ferrando had the original Nuisance Law (or Slumlord Control Law) "tabled", after he meet with landlords.

Then the City Attorney was supposed to go over the tabled law to improve it, but it was never given to him.

Then it became the responsibility of the Neighborhood Improvement Committee to come up with a proposed local law.

Maybe after 4 years. it's time to take the original law, the concerns over it and what the NIC has come up with, and give it to the City Attorney with direction to write an ordinance and submit it to Council within 90 days.

This has dragged on way too long.

Apr 17, 2010, 7:14am Permalink
JT Hunt

god bless mr balbick, but batavia has been reduced to transient residents of transient landlords in a city that has lacked an definitive identity for all my 32 years. that's because liveable wage jobs build a city's identity and sadly, these jobs have become transient as well. thank NAFTA, greed, and ethnocentirsm. you can't stop economic Darwinism. either adapt or suffer its recourse. it's so much more clear from the outside people. is mayor via phone a feasable option or what? it's like watching an absurdly unproductively obese stranger eat a steak between puffs of an unfiltered cig, whilst chasing it down with a few gulps of malt liqour as he scratches a $20 NY lotto ticket. STOP IT!

Apr 24, 2010, 1:23pm Permalink

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