Landlord Travels To Defend His Reputation

Even the most mundane of government meetings can, at times, reveal a greater understanding of humankind.

On Wednesday, July 28, the Belmont Board of Health heard a cautionary tale of no good intention going unpunished.

In fact, the board expressed sympathy for Anthony Lerro, the owner of 12 Clyde St., after he described the circumstances under which his tenants contacted the board to report various sanitary code violations in the apartment they were leasing from him.

Lerro said he traveled all the way from Florida because he wanted to let members know he firmly believes his tenants were just "using" them to get out of paying rent.

Lerro, a part-time Belmont resident who also lives in Florida, took measures into his own hands to correct the violations which included cross metering a utility service that caused a significant spike in the tenant's fuel bills, an action the Health Department was required to contact him.

"Had the tenants complained to me directly about the high fuel cost they had to pay, I would have had an efficiency test done immediately or paid the $980 they owed myself," Lerro said. "But they just did this to get out of paying rent."

Soon after correcting the problem of the cross metering, Lerro said he received a letter from the tenants' attorney stating that they were withholding rent until their long list of complaints – including peeling paint in the bathroom and a nonworking doorbell – was resolved. And the tenants also refused to pay until the work toward fixing all the code violations were completed to their satisfaction.

"This is a two-family house and the second floor has been rented since 1940 with no complaints whatsoever," Lerro said.

"Trouble started as soon as I rented to this couple who had a dispute with the tenant on the second floor over sharing the driveway and the method of sharing keys so that the cars didn't block each other," Lerro noted.

He explained that the upstairs tenant told the tenants that the system was to leave keys on a hook so each could move another's car, should it be necessary. But the couple on the first floor refused to comply and eventually took out a retraining order against the tenant with whom they share the house.

 Had they known more about the tenants' "modus operandi" while the case was an open one, perhaps the board could have mitigated the trouble Lerro had to go through, said Board Vice Chairman Dr. Robert Eisendrath. 

Lerro, however, did not avail himself of the hearing process that he was entitled to as part of the original health order from the department.

But the case, which former Health Director Donna Moultrup, who retired in July, handled by issuing a list of improvements Lerro had to make, was closed in March.

"It sounds like you were dragged over the coals and it seems accurate when you say the tenants just wanted free rent," said Eisendrath.

"You got yourself some professional tenants," said Dr. David Alper. "It was nice of you to come all this way to tell us this and it's a shame you had to go through it."

The good news, board members and Lerro agreed, is that the tenants will be moving out of the two-family house on July 31.