Class-action law suit against absentee landlords threatened by Northwood Civic Association 9
A class-action law suit against property owners who rent their homes in Northwood could be looming in the coming months, warned neighborhood civic association President Barry Howell at last night’s meeting.
“I don’t know how rentals came to Northwood, but they won’t stay,” Howell said to 26 attendees. “If they don’t own it, they can leave.”
Rental properties require special zoning, and many fall under a commercial jurisdiction, which board member Joe Krause says is illegal under the neighborhood’s more than 80-year-old Burk Deed Restriction [PDF]. Such properties would need zoning permission and often a business privilege license. He pointed to properties along Foulkrod Street as examples of a string of rentals.
Krause encouraged residents to tell the board about any other rental properties in Northwood, so the civic association can investigate the possibility of building the case and taking it to court. There, the board says it feels it could be successful in finding a new way to combat the influx of rental properties that many neighborhoods in the Northeast say are helping to fracture their safe, cared-for communities.
“No residential deed restriction has ever been overturned,” Krause said.
Howell spoke throughout the 70-minute meeting of doing something “bold” to improve the neighborhood.
“We’ve evened out,” he said. “For a while we were fighting a decline, but now we’ve finished off a lot of these zoning issues from the past, and now we’re going to move upward.”
The latest zoning issue the Northwood civic calls a success is the result of a special city zoning board hearing held Oct. 7 on 950 Fillmore St., which had a second-floor addition, a front patio and more unlicensed work completed. The board required the owner to demolish the addition or appeal the decision within 30 days, Howell reported.
Howell read a letter from the board’s attorney, which complimented the association for collecting several volunteers to testify at the hearing against the Fillmore Street property changes.
This victory is a direct result of “the relentless participation and desire to see this through of the Northwod Civic Association,” the letter read.
Howell drew comparisons from that single victory to the civic’s aspirations for the future, including attacking the absentee landlords whom the board criticizes for devaluing their properties, damaging the community and, the board alleges, flying in the face of zoning law.
“If we stick together, we will win any case that comes before the zoning board and any other fight that comes our way,” Howell said. “We can change Northwood.”
Below read other action from the meeting:
Also at the meeting: Rush the Cemetery
We want to see some evidence that Benjamin Rush ever lived there, was the call to arms by Northwood Civic Association president Barry Howell and fellow board members.
In the association’s 2006 deal to give blessing to the Cancer Treatment Centers of America‘s eastern regional medical center located at 1331 East Wyoming Avenue, a pool of money exceeding $800,000 was donated toward the beautification of the neighboring Knights of Pythias Greenwood Cemetery and the renovation and restoration of a home located in the cemetery that is believed to have been home to Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a major Revolutionary-era figure.
Despite bringing in archeologists, historians and many others to pursue a place on the National Historic Registry, no surefire evidence that Rush lived in the property has been released, much to Howell’s frustration.
“The Cancer center could have been duped,” Howell said.
The Greenwood Cemetery will “absolutely” know whether Rush lived there or not, Joe Hevener, the historic burial ground’s acting superintendent, pledged last night.
He put a similar time line on the completion of re-interring 3,000 burial plots, as part of a major excavation. Just less than half are done now, he said.
The Cancer center has brought 750 jobs to the new location since 2006, with as many as 250 more in the future.
Other business handled: City Controller candidate Al Schmidt and District Attorney challenger Michael Untermeyer, both Republicans running in the Nov. 3 general election, each made appearances. See video of Al Schmidt’s appearance. Democratic D.A. candidate Seth Williams appeared at the Lawncrest Civic Association meeting, declining a request from Northwood, Howell said… The entire civic board was unopposed in renomination for another year term… Northwood Civic will also approach all of its elected officials about applying for community development grant money that Howell says is included in remaining federal stimulus money. “Don’t worry,” Howell said to laughter,” I won’t be handling the $2 million we’ll get.” He said the board would form committees to target money for things like street lights and perhaps buying properties, like one at Castor Avenue and Arrott Street… A string of car vandalism was reported and a new community relations officer was introduced.
[...] has a good report on the Northwood Civic meeting last night. Good to see they are going after the landlords. Now [...]
[...] how Pat’s Cafe and that auto shop were able to be built. Neast Philly recently reported that the Northwood Civic is planning legal action against any infringement on the deed restrictions which is sure to keep the neighborhood strong for years to [...]
I find myself amongst the dreadfully loathed absentee “landlords” in Northwood. This is an unfortunate and unintended circumstance. We bought our house in Northwood because we loved the neighborhood and community. Our house is not located in the restricted area but we are absentee. I am writing because I share these concerns for this community and find myself on the wrong side of the fence. As I said we ended up in this position unintentionally and had planned on making Northwood our permanent home. We have kept our house in hopes of returning home at some point. We make every effort to rent our home to family’s and involve our neighbors in the process. This is a small step in face of a large problem, I know.
Furthermore, we currently live in Maine which makes it even more difficult.
I am writing all of this because as I said, we share these concerns and don’t want to be a part of the problem.
Making the decision to sell our home would make for a seriously sad day and one I don’t really want to face, however we must also recognize that people like us may make the community less of what drew us there to begin with.
So, this is one absentee “landlord” that applauds these efforts, that cares about this community and is willing to work with the civic association and will take it very seriously.
I think this is a great move for Northwood.
Best regards,
Kate
Kate,
Thanks so much for sharing your experience. I wonder, do you have any advice about working with other landlords in your situation?
-cgw
Kate – outside of the deed restricted area is a major concern for “all” of Northwood. When problem properties start popping up residents flee; as you did. Property values tumble, and crime rates rise. Granted not all renters are bad; we were all renters at one time in our lives. But when properties are ignored, as many are in your area, the negative effects only creep further. A perfect example are the single homes on the west side of Roosevelt Blvd. surrounded by delapidated rental homes. These single homes, some 4000 sq/ft plus, can be purchased for $175,000. Until people in Philadelphia start realizing the value of home ownership this trend will continue. It seems the only homeowners in Philadelphia that are realizing value are the ones that live out of town. I don’t expect we’ll ever see you back in Philadelphia as resident, Maine is a pretty nice place to live. But hopefully we’ll see you maintaining your Philly property; and helping those who appreciate the historic value the homes in our neighborhood have. As you are well aware also, every step we take in the right direction to restore this neighborhood helps create value for your property as well. Everyone wins when a neighborhood is saved. Best of luck to you.
Joey, please understand I agree with you. I did not flee the neighborhood nor did I buy for investment purposes. Something unexpected came up that we couldn’t pass up. I hope that we do return to Northwood in the near future and if not I believe we will have to think hard. I don’t think that this doesn’t concern us just because we aren’t in the restricted area. We really do care about it. Our neighbors are very good friends and report problems and we take immediate action. We care about them and their children and the quality of their lives. We have some really crappy landlords on our street and I don’t care to be one. We have no intention of running our house into the ground to make a buck. It isn’t what we are about but I also understand that it isn’t simple and we may be a part of the problem and I hear you . I applaud these efforts and am very uncomfortable with the position I am in.
Please don’t think I take it lightly.
Best,
Kate
Christopher,
We have been fortunate enough to have friends and neighbors that watch out for us. They report to us if the grass hasn’t been mowed for example. It is in our lease that if the property and grounds aren’t maintained to the specs outlined in our contract that I will hire outside maintenance and bill them for it.
We have learned that even with eyes and ears out there for us it is difficult to always know what is gong on.
I think we have come up with a more efficient system (and seem to have really great tenants) but perhaps some folks in our position who don’t have people to watch over things like we do would be willing to pay for and receive a report on their property from the association.
I am certainly open to any recommendations the association has for us.
I don’t know what the association is able to accomplish but perhaps there are options within the realm of fines.
Our block is dead serious and calls the city for all infractions, such as long grass, garbage cans, grass in the sidewalk etc.
Perhaps the association can motivate more blocks to do the same.
Also, we have block cleaning parties in the spring and summer. Our tenants are required by our lease to participate or pay our block association.
We included a bunch of these kinds of things in our lease. Cars are another thing. Our tenants can only park two cars on our street according to our lease.
Perhaps you can convince other landlords to put these kinds of things in their leases. Our lease also limits the number of adults living in the house to two. We have made a recent exception for an aging Mom.
Our block continues to get better and better. It would kill me to see it turn back in the opposite direction.
At any rate, I don’t know if that helps at all.
I would be very interested in continuing this dialogue.
Oh also, we drop the rent $100 when tenants sign the maintenance contract. If they don’t keep up maintenance they have to pay full rent as outlined in the agreement.
If you could get landlords to agree to these kinds of things I think it would help.
But the worst ones don’t care right?
Let me know if I can help in anyway.
Best,
Kate
Kate you’re a rare breed. If all landlords practiced their business your way, they could collect double maybe even triple what they get now. No one wants to pay high rents in run down neighborhoods; and if I have anything to do with it, and I will. People who maintain their properties will be able to attract the best tenants and command the highest rents because their properties will be in a desirable, safe, drug free, neighborhood. Well, mostly drug free, it is still Philadelphia.
great conversation here, guys. i hope to see more of this on the site. thanks a lot for having it here. would you guys ever want/use a Web forum or part of the site made for these kind of conversations or do you prefer they happen here in the comments? we want to make this site a place for more and more of these dialogues.
-cgw