East Hartford mayor announces policy changes to protect tenants from absentee landlords
He announced several policy changes being implemented to protect tenants on Monday after dozens were left without heat for weeks last winter.
Newington landlord, BOE member charged after allegedly leaving tenant without water for 54 days
'I have heard the horror stories of absentee landlords, of landlords that are out of state, landlords who have no regard for their safety or their quality of life and it bothers me quite a bit,' Martin said to reporters during a news conference.
In January 2024, News 8 first reported on four buildings, 62 units and 70 tenants left without heat at Chapman Arms Apartments in East Hartford because of a boiler issue.
Aryan DeJesus was living there at the time.
'I would rather best-case scenario stay in my own place; I have everything set up and it's really hard to take care of two people I could barely even afford to pay rent,' DeJesus said.
The town had to step in to help the impacted tenants. The mayor says the owner/landlord, 'Stratus Equities LLC' was not willing to put up residents or pay for hotel accommodations. That situation, and others in the community prompted change in town to introduce policy reforms to bolster tenant protections.
'This is a great day to make sure that our residents know that we've got their back, that we are going to be here for them in the event that the system landlord fails them. We're going to do this alongside our tenant's union, which is made up of tenants here in East Hartford,' the mayor said.
The town is strengthening the blight ordinance, by clearly defining what blight is. Leaders are also increasing property maintenance fines from $100 to $1,000 and improving their Uniform Relocation Assistance Act process, by partnering with the Connecticut's Tenants Union.
'We needed more teeth in our enforcement effort and so increasing those property maintenance fines up to 1,000 dollars whether it be per violation, per unit, per day, starts to be heavier, and bring the weight of responsibility down on that landlord,' Martin said.
'Many corporate landlords are breaking the law every single day, just because they can. This policy signifies that that is no longer possible,' Hannah Srajer is the President of the Connecticut Tenants Union said.
News 8 reached out to Stratus Equities and are waiting for a statement in response.
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