Rent Too High? Southington Mulls New Board That Could Help

SOUTHINGTON, CT — Local residents who think their landlord is illegally gouging them on rent may soon have a town-based commission to act on their behalf.

The Southington Town Council is close to creating a new, Southington Fair Rent Commission that would consist of five members who could, if necessary, order a landlord to cut rent to a tenant if deemed too expensive and unnecessarily too high.

Monday night, Nov. 28, the council unanimously scheduled a public hearing for an ordinance to create such a board, with local leaders praising two bipartisan colleagues for working together to draft the ordinance.

The hearing would be Monday, Dec. 12, at 7 p.m. at Southington's John Weichsel Municipal Center Assembly Room, after which the full council could decide the fate of the new commission.

Republican Councilman Michael Del Santo praised the bipartisan spirit behind the two council members who worked together to help draft the ordinance — Democrat Valerie A. DePaolo and Republican Paul Chaplinsky Jr., the board's vice chairman.

"Everyone put time in, but Paul and Val really burned the midnight oil. Thank you so much for doing all the hard work on this," Del Santo said prior to the vote.

"For this, I'm very happy that this came together," said Southington Town Council Chairperson Victoria Triano, a Republican.

Such a board would provide a tenant with a form of recourse should they be hit with a steep rent hike upon completion of a lease.

Earlier this month, the council finalized a draft list of regulations forming the commission and sent it to town-hired attorneys for a legal review.

In doing so, council members voted unanimously to table any immediate action on the fair rent commission until after attorneys weigh in on the draft set of regulations.

The council Nov. 14 discussed several small details associated with the draft and did some language tweaking before, ultimately, sending it out for legal review by consensus.

Prior to the vote, council members praised each other on both sides of the political aisle for the work done to get to where they are.

"I don't think the public knows how much bipartisan work goes on behind the scenes," said Councilman William Dziedzic, a Republican.

Dziedzic said the state legislature should be more involved in how fair rent commissions are created in a town instead of, simply, charging a group of "unpaid volunteers" to come up with an important legal document.

Regardless, the town now has a mostly finished document that could soon provide important relief to cash-strapped tenants should they be placed in the unenviable situation of seeing their rent skyrocket for the unit they live in.

"We now have a document that's pretty much ready to go," said Chaplinsky Jr. Nov. 14. "My hope is that we as a council can align on this. If this thing comes back with a positive recommendation, then we can all get behind this."

DePaulo said Southington having such a commission is a long time coming and she thanked Chaplinsky Jr. and others for their work toward that end.

"Fair rent commissions have been around for a long time and I do think this is something our town needed," Depaulo said Nov. 14.

The draft ordinance outlines who can serve on the commission, for how long and what the commission will legally be allowed to do.

Among the highlights, according to a draft ordinance, are:

• The purpose for the commission, the document reads, is to review and determine if a landlord inflicts "harsh and unconscionable rental charges for housing accommodations within the town."

• The commission would have five members and three alternates, all of whom shall be Southington residents and/or employees. At least one should be a residential landlord and another a tenants. The appointed terms would be for four years.

• The commission would receive complaints from tenants and, following a hearing and subsequent investigation, the commission could determine if the rent is fair or not and order it slashed, among other duties.

For the minutes of the Nov. 14 Southington Town Council meeting and a draft of the Southington Fair Rent Commission Ordinance, click on this link.

For the agenda of the Nov. 28 Southington Town Council meeting, click on this link.