Council grapples again with landlord-tenant issues

The responsibility for maintenance of property in the City of Batavia -- landlords or tenants -- was a topic of discussion again on Monday night during the City Council meeting.

Councilman Bob Bialkowski raised issues brought up at a recent Neighborhood Improvement Committee meeting, when City Court Judge Robert Balbick paid the committee a visit.

Bialkowski wanted to know if enforcement actions were being taken against the right people, and whether some matters might be better turned over to the police.

City Attorney George Van Nest and City Manager Jason Molino said most of the matters that reach a court hearing stage are targeted at the right people -- the landlords -- because they are "brick and mortar" issues.

Molino said 25 of the last 28 court cases the city has prosecuted have been for such structural issues as peeling paint, rain gutters, fire damage and roofs.

"That's something we to focus on," Van Nest said.

Now that summer is rolling around, there will be more attention paid to debris issues, Molino said, but letters will be sent to both tenants and landlords.

Molino said the city's efforts are paying dividends and that many landlords are working with the city to identify and address problems.

"The enforcement is happening, the compliance is happening, much faster than it has in the past," Molino said. "I think the system that we’re using, the accountability system, is really being followed."

Bialkowski said he would like to see city police and code enforcement work more closely with landlords on cases where a tenant has seemingly engaged in criminal conduct before vacating an apartment or house.

"The judge thought some of these might be taken up as a criminal matter because they are so malicious," Bialkowski said. "I remember a couple of yeas ago, a friend of mine did serve an eviction notice on a tenant and he showed me pictures of the aftermath – this was way beyond civil – they just basically destroyed this entire dwelling. We need to look at possibly some communication with the police and code enforcement on what is the best way to handle this."

Molino said the police will look at possible criminal matters, but building an actual criminal case can be difficult and, after the meeting, Chief Randy Baker agreed.

"We have a level of proof to meet before it’s a criminal matter," Baker said. "One is, was it intentionally done or recklessly done? Then it’s a matter of identifying who did the damage. We can’t always meet all those criteria, so sometimes we can’t file the criminal charges."

Molino also noted that keeping a property in compliance is also a landlord responsibility because it's the landlord who approved the tenant in the first place. He suggested that local landlords do a better job of communicating with each other about bad tenants.

"Some of the responsibility ultimately falls on the landlord in these cases to do their proper review, their proper screening on tenants and the history of tenants," Molino said.