City to hold 'engagement meetings' for landlords

The effort is the latest step by the city to make sure renters' rights are respected. I year ago, A year ago, city officials began cracking down on the worst offenders, those whose buildings demand repeated visits from authorities because of crime, noise, or other disruptive behavior.

Irish said often many small property owners don’t know all the rules or need help working out disputes with the city and tenets and hopefully with the classes the process can be smoother and less adversarial.

‘We find that at-times small landlords take an approach where it’s adversarial between an inspector, the landlord, the tenet,” said Irish, who has been with ISD for 17 years. “We don’t work against landlords, we don’t work for tenets, we work for the community and want to make sure we have safe, healthy housing for the community.”

The monthly meetings will feature a little of everything covering topics like property owner rights, bed bugs, and the Housing Code.

ISD hopes to provide landlords a place where they can talk with inspectors, gain knowledge, and share with other landlords their stories.

“We found that the landlords who attended our trainings share with each other,” said Irish “We’ll bring in professional property managers, speakers, folks from the pest control industry, and talk about resources and share practices.”

The meetings will take place on the third Thursday of every month at the Inspectional Services Department's Commissioners office conference room on the fifth-floor of 1010 Mass Ave. from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

This month’s meeting will be held Jun. 21

Those who are interested in attending are encouraged to register in advance by contacting (617) 961-3297 or ISDhousing@cityofboston.gov

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Email Patrick D. Rosso, patrick.d.rosso@gmail.com. Follow him @PDRosso, or friend him on Facebook.