I see a lot of suburbs in these parts have adopted this program, as have municipalities all over the country. Apparently it has met with some success.
http://www.crime-free-association.org/lease_addendums.htm
I wonder if we should try this. Some towns require it by ordinance.
I did not read through the whole website - is the idea here for a town to enact an ordinance that requires all owners to add a clause to a rental lease that if there is any criminal activity on the premises , the lease can be terminated by the property owner? Wd that include misdemeanors, too, or is that detail part of what would be specified in the ordinance?
I wd think that any lease wd have the above already, but I am not experienced with leases.
I think it is a nice idea but is probably unenforceable in Cook County.
Also, you get into a gray area as to when the event is triggered. Is it a neighbor complaining? Is the threshold an arrest? What if the individual is wrongly accused? Wait till conviction: That could take time and the illegal activities would probably continue during that time period. Once that happens then you have to go through the Cook County eviction process - another 30-90 days during which time the tenant will more than likely not pay rent since they already know you are trying to kick them out.
I am all for kicking out scumbags. The real problem is a few of the larger landlords in this village not screening tenants properly. I think more pressure needs to be applied towards the bad landlords in terms of code violations, stepped up enforcement of fire and safety codes and ticketing for maintenance and blight issues.
Also, if bad landlords do not pay their water bills I would recommend the Village lien the property, decide how much they would accept as settlement and then turn the case over to an attorney on contingency for a percentage over the settlement amount plus attorney's fees.
Flight,
TO answer one of your questions, the model lease at this web site contains the following provision:
Unless otherwise provided by law, proof of violation shall not require a criminal conviction, but shall be by a preponderance of the evidence
It doesn't say who the trier of fact is who establishes proof based on the preponderance of evidence. I presume the landlord would serve this role.
This strikes me as one of those ideas that sounds nice, but that has a very limited impact--kind of like Oak Park declaring itself a nuclear free zone. It's pretty unlikely that someone is going to think about using the property for crimes and then stop, realizing such activity is prohibited by a lease. (I do understand that the point of this is to give the landlord more power to boot problem tenants, but I'm not sure this lease would give them powers that a regular lease would not.)
I'm with you--strict code enforcement, applied equally to all landlords, is the most effective means of eliminating problem buildings.
Another thing about this is the litigation it might trigger. As in the case of out of district students being searched for by the private firms the schools hire. He said-she said situations would be very problematic.
Not so Flight, I see numerous towns in Cook County have enacted this, e.g. Berwyn, Skokie, Palatine, village of Lansing, and others are considering it. There is a training component for landlords that some towns require attendance at. It has the effect of enhancing screening because landlords do not want to have to let an apartment all over again. It also lowers the bar to be able to evict people. That is precisely its function, to enhance the landlord and the municipality's power to evict people.
For example, Mexican-drug-cartel guy on Burlington could not necessarily be evicted from the house on Burlington without this clause. Suppose he got out on bail? The preponderance of the evidence would likely be determined by the police. I would say that incident filled the bill.
I doubt that towns all over the country are doing this to no effect. You don't see many towns declaring themselves 'nuclear free zones.' That is not an apposite comparison.
A building may be in perfect conformance with codes but still tolerate criminality. Uneven enforcement is a more likely occasion for litigation by wealthy landlords; the kind of folks who would be kicked out are unlikely to find a plaintiff's attorney who would take their case.
I will research it some more and talk to the police about it.
For example, Mexican-drug-cartel guy on Burlington could not necessarily be evicted from the house on Burlington without this clause. Suppose he got out on bail?
Sure he could. Most standard apartment leases contain clauses about the use of property for illegal purposes. The problem is getting the eviction process going, which would still exist in this case.
Just to be clear, I have no issues with a landlord including language like this in a lease--if it makes it easier to kick out problem tenants, I'm all for it. My issues are 1) I'm not sure how effective it is and 2) I don't think having the government mandate it is appropriate. Criminal behaviour is illegal already--I don't know that the government requiring that a landlord put this language in a lease would be particularly effective as a crime prevention measure.
Well, John, I guess you will have to ask those hundreds or thousands of municipalities around the country that have adopted it why they are wasting their time and money. Taking drugs is illegal too. It is generally considered better to put even more roadblocks in its way than that.
I am just researching it myself, but the fact that it has become so widespread and that police say it is effective inclines me toward it. You are free to research it as well, or if you have some other crime discouragement ideas, I would be interested in hearing those. I think it is good to create and get a reputation for zero tolerance.
Well, Catherine, my belief is that due to the fear of crime, governmental bodies sometimes enact laws and procedures that are often mere window dressing and have little or no effect on criminal activity or the root causes of crime. My view is that this is one of those cases. As I said, if a landlord wants to do this, fine. I don't agree with the government mandating it.
I do think that landlord-tenant law tends to favour the tenants, and that eviction procedures are unnecessarily onerous, especially for small-scale landlords, who may not have the resources or time to effectively pursue them through the courts--however, that is not an issue that a municipality can address, other than through lobbying. However, in some cases, the landlords are the problem, and I think that a more active inspection program, with serious fines for violaters, would have an impact on reducing the number of problem buildings.
http://www.crime-free-association.org/testimonials.htm
"The City of Champlin in Minnesota has been running the program since 1997. The program has worked for our city with a population of 23,000. The training we received from the Mesa Police Department was the spark we needed to get our program off and running.
We had our program evaluated by Mankato State University and the results were an overall reduction to calls for service and crimes by over 36%.
If anyone needs to review our evaluation from the University of Mankato, please let me know."
Police Officer, Kevin Wagman
Police Department
Champlin, MN
"Our reductions in calls for service are a little over 75%. 95% to 99% in some of our gangland apartment complexes that have been turn into family oriented communities because of this program."
Officer John Start
Crime Free Multi-Housing Program
951-715-3429 - Office
951-715-3412 - Desk
"We have trained around 500 persons in phase 1 of CFMH and have numerous fully certified properties. The most notable benefit has been the decrease in calls at our worst property, which had 940 calls for service and 126 arrests in 2001. It was down to 604 calls for service and 26 arrests in 2003."
Tim Thomason
Columbia Missouri Police Department
Crime Free Programs Coordinator
"Since my return from the conference and the implementation of the program on the use of the Crime Free addendum our call volume in multi-family areas have dropped tremendously. Landlords/managers have been following through and enforcing the rules they lay out. They have made it clear that causing problems is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. They know there is a way to stop the problems and they know it works because they can see the proof in their own results. To my knowledge there has not been anyone to contest to their eviction based on a violation of the lease or lease addendum. If they have, they have not won.
While I cannot give an exact percentage of call volume decrease in multi-housing communities, I can tell you as a shift supervisor my crew spends a lot less time answering calls in these areas. The change has been tremendous and continuous. My officers have also noticed a change and know how the rules work. I am grateful for the information I was given and have been able to use.
One of the great things about this program is it is not hard to get support. Rental properties are often about money. If you show someone how they can save money and keep the units full with good people then people will listen."
Sgt. Diana Campbell
Crime Free Coordinator
Monroe Police Department
P.O. Box 1570
Monroe, GA 30655
770-267-7576
"Based on the model established by The City of Mesa, we have seen a dramatic decrease (up to 60% at some locations) in the number of calls for service at apartment complexes in the city. The crime rates in these complexes are lower and the quality of life for many of the residents has gone up!
The partnership that has been forged between our participating communities and the Sheriff's Department has proven time and time again to be invaluable! Just this past summer, our city was plagued by a group that was heavily "tagging" areas of the city. Regular patrols and high impact patrols were not bringing the results we needed.When one of the vandalisms hit near one of our Crime Free locations, it was as if the floodgates of information opened up. The Community manager began spreading the word about the problems to the entire community. We obtained information that was essentially, the last piece of the puzzle on identifying and catching our vandal."
Ed Mackenzie, Team Leader
Community Action Team
San Dimas Sheriff's Station
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
(909) 971-2433 work
etc. etc. etc.
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