Proposal could hold landlords responsible for tenant behavior

Wesley Goheen

Should owners of rental properties be held accountable for the criminal activities of their tenants?

They would be under a proposal in the works in a local city. But the city is also giving the landlords notice to what’s happening on their properties.

The proposal would hold rental property owners accountable for the criminal activity of their tenants.

The notice would happen by creating a notification alert system that sends an email to the landlord, letting them know each time the police are called to their rental property.

Jeff Klopcic is the technical services director for the city of Saginaw, and he helped spearhead the system.

“If you’re going to have an addendum that holds the tenants and the landlords accountable, you better be able to notify the landlords that’s something is happening,” says Klopcic. “I think it helps not only the landlords to be notified, because it is their investment, it’s their property, but it also helps the community around that area and it helps the city also because now we are tracking it.”

The email gives the property owner the date, the type of crime and a report number so you can contact the police for more information about what’s going at your property.

The alert system is still in the testing stage and only 800 out of 4,800 rental property owners have registered so far. They are encouraging others to sign up before the official roll out date next month.

The notification alert system is expected to be activated on August 4.

Source: wnem