Rocky Hill town leaders push for bills to hold landlords accountable
Connecticut lawmakers are working to tackle landlord issues, and they’re getting an extra push from Rocky Hill town officials.
The bills, SB 272 and SB 274, have been introduced by the planning and development committee for lawmakers’ consideration. Rocky Hill Town Councilor Zach van Luling said the bills will allow towns and cities to apply blight ordinances quickly when there are repeated issues.
“The second bill would force big companies like JRK to register with far more detailed information about their company structure and increase fines on building and fire code violations,” van Luling explained.
Rocky Hill Mayor Allan Smith and Deputy Mayor Miriam Lifshitz-Theroux both agree that these bills would help prevent situations like the one that occurred at the Concierge Apartments in Rocky Hill early this month, where JRK Holdings LLC is the management company.
“Hopefully, we can address something before it escalates to the point of hundreds of people being displaced,” said Smith.
Bill 274 requires nonresident landlords to register a contact person for residents, but some local landlords say it could impact business.
“Hamden actually just enacted a nonresident landlord registry, which was very costly. It cost us over $27,000, which is a huge amount of money,” said Franklin Communities Chief Community Officer Lauren Tagliatela. “I’m all for transparency. You know, certainly residents need to be able to find the person who is responsible for where they live.”
Sen. Jeff Gordon (R-35) said he’s a supporter of both bills.
“There are homeowners, sometimes landlords, who have repeated serious blight offenses. These are things that are serious public safety, public health,” said Gordon.
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