Can occupancy rule stop students from doubling up?
Suffolk University senior Michael Savage, who is also a real estate agent, says he has noticed that some landlords have recently changed their policies and decided not to rent to students.
(Pat Greenhouse / Globe Staff Photo)It's been more than a month since city officials unanimously passed a zoning ordinance that makes it illegal for more than four undergraduate college students to live together in a leased apartment.
While the new law has created uncertainty among property owners and real estate agents, some would-be tenants, like Suffolk University junior Ben James, are considering their options.
For James, the plan for next year appears clear. That's because the 20-year-old English and philosophy major has kept his name off the current lease by sharing a room with a friend from school, which leaves four students registered as residents in his section of a three-family home in Allston.
"There will be situations that'll be similar to mine, with one or two people living where they shouldn't be," he said. "I think they'll be able to avoid it."
The zoning change was proposed in December by City Councilor Michael Ross and was passed unanimously by the City Council before it made its way through the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Boston Zoning Commission last month. Mayor Thomas M. Menino signed the limit into law on March 13.
Ross, who represents Beacon Hill, Back Bay, and Mission Hill, has said the amendment to the city's zoning code is intended to keep landlords from converting spaces in large, multibedroom homes, such as a dining room or a back porch, into additional bedrooms that could draw more students and a higher monthly rent.
The measure has gained ground with neighborhood groups and local universities, the latter of which, according to BRA figures, enroll about 13,000 full-time, undergraduate students who live off-campus.
Enforcement of the law will be driven by neighborhood complaints, city officials said, but the specifics of the policy have not been determined. Real estate representatives say they are concerned about potential consequences from the occupancy restriction, but several were hesitant in interviews last week to predict whether it already has affected the market.
"We're still not sure how the city is going to enforce it," said Gregory P. Vasil, chief executive of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board. "We've received absolutely nothing."
That's likely to change, Ross said, with the outcome of a lawsuit filed this month by four Allston-Brighton landlords who joined with a Boston College sophomore in an effort to overturn the ordinance.
"It literally takes property owners who were operating legally on March 12 and makes them operate illegally on March 13," said Stephen Greenbaum, a Boston-based lawyer who specializes in land use and serves as a partner at the firm Greenbaum, Nagel, Fisher, and Hamelburg, which is representing the group. The complaint, filed April 8 in state Land Court, challenges the constitutionality of the new law.
Ross contends that the landlords, who have purchased single-family or multifamily properties during the last two decades and already have signed more than four tenants to yearlong leases set to begin in September, have racked up dozens of violations on their properties over the years, for a variety of reasons, including putting the trash out early and overfilling barrels and dumpsters.
"It was expected," Ross said about the lawsuit. "I think you have a small group of people who stand to lose some of their profits, and I would expect them to exhaust their legal opportunities to try to prevent that."
Michael Savage toes the line as both a real estate agent and a student. A senior at Suffolk University, he has worked at
"I just don't think anybody knows about it, including my tenants and my friends," Savage said in an interview. The marketing major said he didn't expect occupancy limits to be a problem near his office because students are generally in the hunt for smaller, two- or three-bedroom apartments. He has noticed, however, that a few landlords each year have changed course and decided not to rent to students.
"There are less and less apartments for students," he said. "It just seems like every year some landlord has had an incident and then that student has ruined it for the rest of the kids who come through. But it's understandable because they have a nice place and they don't want it to get ruined or wrecked."
Ford, who runs three real estate agencies in the city, said he has "mixed feelings" about the new law. "I like the idea of it because it keeps the tranquility of Beacon Hill in place and it's not lost to a student population." On the other hand, he cautions that "students are going to have a very, very challenging time to find apartments."
"It's going to be more of a nuisance than have any major impact on the real estate market."
