Brokers targeted in Boston's latest crackdown on student rowdies
Here’s a proposal that is bound to stir up some controversy, both in the real estate industry and beyond.
The Boston City Council is preparing to debate plans to slap a $300 fine on real estate brokers who rent out a single apartment to five or more students.
It’s the latest in a campaign by City Councilor Michael Ross to rein in student rowdies in the neighborhoods.
Ross, as you may recall, led the charge that led to last year’s change to the city’s zoning code that prohibits more than four students sharing a single apartment.
That proposal triggered some pretty fierce reactions, both from residents of Boston neighborhoods fed up with Animal House-style antics and from small landlords arguing the proposal was unfair.
I guess one basic question is with the new rules already on the books, why the need for an additional penalty?
After all, city inspectors are already authorized to go after landlords who violate the new regulations.
My suspicion, though, is that the first proposal, in fact, is proving harder to enforce than first thought, leading Ross and City Councilor Maureen Feeney, to try and attack the problem from a new angle.
After recently chatting with Ross on the phone, I hardly came away convinced that the crackdown so far has been a stunning success.
He mentioned a handful of cases that city inspectors have brought under last year’s proposal, hardly the avalanche I would have expected given all the talk about rowdy students tearing up the social fabric of Boston’s neighborhoods.
The new proposal is aimed at brokers that Ross contends are marketing deliberately to students and knowingly violating the rules.
One argument raised against the new rules has been the difficulty proving someone is actually a student. After all, we don’t live in a police state and this is something one could easily lie about.
That, critics say, puts landlords in an impossible situation.
But Ross contends these brokers know full well they are packing students into apartments. He questions whether landlords and brokers could be so blissfully unaware of whether their new tenants are students given the extensive background checks anyone who has ever rented an apartment has invariably endured.
“We are not talking about a tremendous amount of people,’’ Ross said. “A few real estate brokers are causing or willingly engaging in practices that are destabilizing our neighborhoods. It’s not destabilizing to rent to college students, but it is by turning whole homes into dorms.’’
Anyway, a hearing on the new proposal is slated to be held in the next several weeks.
It should prove interesting, to say the least.
Comment
Permalink
Email
"After all, city inspectors are already authorized to go after landlords who violate the new regulations."
Thanks for the laugh.
Thanks for writing about this, Scott.
I am a newly minted rental agent and there's absolutely no way to tell for sure that someone is a student or not. Its a lot of guessing, and where does the guessing stop so that I don't violate laws against discriminating on the basis of age? With all clients, it is strictly the honor code--solely based upon what they tell me. I can say I haven't worked with many large groups and it looks like if this passes I will definitely avoid them since there would be no way for me to protect myself against fines for sure otherwise.
Can Mr. Ross tell the difference between four 22 year old graduate students wanting to room together and four 22 year old undergrads wanting to room together? If I see a group of twenty-somethings in college sweatshirts (something I wear as a 28 year old on my weekends) should I refuse to work with them? What if they are four 18 year olds taking a break year between high school and college and they later enroll in college? (A broker/agent can be penalized for up to 3 years after the lease is signed.) Where does Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax detail student status on a standard credit report?
Wouldn't be the first time that someone wanted to take a badly conceived law and compound the situation by adding another badly conceived law to the books though, I guess. All this does is continue to encourage clients, knowing the law, to mislead their agent and landlord, yet they are the only ones who seem to escape unpunished (even though they are the ones disturbing the peace).
Don't our elected officials have something better to do?
As an aside, I'm a landlord in Salem and the city has an ordinance that no more than 3 unrelated people can rent an apartment. Not sure if it's ever enforced or not....
What about apartments that have more than four bedrooms, or apartments with three bedrooms where at least two bedrooms are occupied by couples? I understand the intentions of this ordinance, but it seems somewhat arbitrary with the number of people capped at 5 and certain discriminatory by singling out students. It really makes blanket assumptions, that fewer than 5 people is somehow a magic number and that people in college are the only ones who can be rowdy. I think there are certainly many cases where there are fewer than 5 non-students living together have raucous parties or being rowdy themselves. Why don't we just have police enforce the noise ordinances we already have? Wouldn't that be the fairest thing to do?
Question, what if 6 people live together in a 3 bedroom apartment but they are not in school, didn't apply to college, aren't enrolled anywhere and they are waitresses or work in some other capacity? Would that still break the rules? I am sure a 19 year old who declined going to college is capable of the same antics as a college enrolled 19 year old...
seems completely unfair, frankly, to all involved
But ... would anyone here want to live next door to one of those frat houses?
4 & 5, speaking as someone who lived for two years on Ashford Street, Allston (aka. "Trashford Street") which is pretty much the epicenter of off-campus BU partying I can say that the numbers have pretty much zilch to do with it, and the same with student status.
Why? Because in this area there are a lot of "working professionals" who just happen to run rock bands in their night hours who create a decent number of the noise violations, many who work at the local Allston Village businesses during the day and play their gigs at night, when they have them--or they practice in their apartment. Although there are exceptions-- I lived next to a rock band on Kelton Street, on the Brighton/Brookline line, and they were totally respectful and definitely quieted down if we came and asked them to watch the noise levels.
Lastly, most apartments for rent in these areas are 2-3 bedrooms as is most of the rental stock in Boston that I see. Most people who come to me looking for a place are students in groups of 2-3. I've had one group of 5 this summer, they were 5 guys, all twenty-somethings, and they were 4 professionals and 1 pharmacy graduate student. But I guess they can't be partiers because they are professionals and a graduate student, right? ;-)
The rules are completely arbitrary, but I guess you have do something, even something completely ineffective, to make it seem to your constituents that you are actually doing something to address their complaints.
Why not address the high prices that motivate people to live like this instead of harassing the kids that are scraping by.
this has been going on for what, 30 years? I'm sure now heads will roll.
If there are 5 students in one apt, but only 4 on the lease, can the students be held liable? What are the penalties?
Oh no not three hundred dollars!! Realtors are already asking, "who do I make it out to" $300 is nothing for them. My broker's fee alone was $4300, equal to one months rent. What a joke.
Most apartments in the Boston area are two beds and rent from $1400-1900 dollars. You might get a deluxe super luxury apartment in Brookline, and rent that for that amount, but its not common and there arenn't tons of people looking for those spaces--that's a lot of money to spend on rent.
Of that commission HALF goes to the sales person, Bob. The other half goes to the supervising broker. Of that half the sales person "nets", a chunk goes to taxes, gas, advertising, dues, other expenses, health insurance--most salespeople are contractors.
As a part timer, I can do a lot of legwork---make calls, call tenants, get keys, drive to showings and not rent a single apartment. Other months, maybe I'll rent 3-4.
You also fail to recognize that the legislation as introduced also reports salespeople to the board and they can lose their license! That's their entire livelihood!
I think that maybe they need to enforce noise violations and work with colleges to rein in rowdy students. I lived in Allston for 4 years and I'm really quite sympathetic. On the other hand, what do you expect if you live next to BU or BC?
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
Recent Posts
browse this blog
by categoryINside Boston.com