too much typing—since 2003

10.12.2007

legal victories and idiocies

I'm glad these students won their case against an abusive slimelandlord. But I've never understood the logic of the city ordinance that says no more than three unrelated people may occupy certain rental properties: if a property is overcrowded or unsafe in some other way because more than three people occupy it, what difference does it make if they're cousins, sisters, fifth cousins, or identical triplet trainees at clown school?

Oh, that's right: it's the city's rather lame attempt to stop landlords from abusing students...which ends up abusing students by prohibiting them from saving money even if the space is perfectly adequate for more than three people. Why not produce a brochure indicating what things are truly unsafe (a basement apartment with no fire exit, say - as the landlord in a building I once lived in rented) and letting renters decide for themselves how many of them can comfortably occupy a space? Meanwhile, stop winking at landlords who don't maintain their properties, refuse to return deposits for no reason, charge tenants for work they never do, etc.

1 comment:

yellojkt said...

In college we rented a two bedroom apartment and always had to keep our third roommate on the down low.