海角换妻 landlords are speaking out against a proposed bill that would limit their eviction abilities.
海角换妻鈥檚 鈥溾�� eviction law protects residents who are at least 62-years-old or have a disability, and live in a building with five or more units, from groundless evictions.
If these tenants are compliant they cannot be evicted without a legal reason. Advocates say the to at least include all tenants of larger apartment buildings of five or more units, regardless of age or disability.
Expansion of the state鈥檚 鈥淛ust Cause鈥� law would prevent landlords from removing compliant tenants without legal grounds, resulting in a 鈥渘o-fault鈥� eviction.
The law is used by landlords to remove unruly tenants, according to Dondre Roberts, a New Haven landlord and 海角换妻 Apartment Association member.
鈥淲hen this is used, although it鈥檚 rare, it鈥檚 used for a very important reason to secure our communities,鈥� Roberts said.
No-fault evictions are on the rise in 海角换妻, amounting for nearly 11% of all evictions in the state. Prior to the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020, no-fault evictions were about 9% of annual evictions.
Opponents of a bill increasing just cause protections, say a preferred alternative to expanding 鈥渏ust cause鈥� is finding ways to increase housing stock.
鈥淲hat we鈥檙e focused on is increasing supply. We think that is at the heart of what we need,鈥� Roberts said. 鈥淟ast year Gov. Lamont said we鈥檙e short 89,000 units. This bill doesn鈥檛 create any additional units that we need.鈥�
The 鈥淛ust Cause鈥� law is used both in situations where a tenant violated a lease and when the tenants鈥� behavior falls outside the lease agreement, Roberts said.
鈥淐ontracts have a start and end date, so if we have a resident that isn;t complying with the lease, we would simply say, 鈥楲isten, out of concern for the community, and your residents and you neighbors who we care for, we鈥檙e not going to offer you a renewal,鈥欌�� Roberts said.
The existing law grants landlords too much power and leads to existing resident displacement to raise rent, 海角换妻 Tenants Union (CTTU) Vice President Luke Melonakos-Harrison said.
鈥淭he assumption there, is that the landlord should have unchecked power to determine what behavior a tenant is doing that rises to the level of disruptive,鈥� Melonakos-Harrison said.
Advocates say adding housing wouldn鈥檛 necessarily remove the issue of 鈥淛ust Cause,鈥� and would cost the state millions in construction.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 really understand what their actual practical policy rebuttal is to what we鈥檙e asking for, which actually doesn鈥檛 cost anything,鈥� CTTU President Hannah Srajer said.
