LANDLORD WANTS LAW TO MAKE EVICTIONS EASIER

Menz: Tenant Should Be Out In Three Days If There's Evidence Of A Crime

BINGHAMTON -- Boards are nailed over the front doors at 163 Susquehanna
St., and an eviction has helped Stephen Menz solve one of his problems. But
others remain.

Problems such as how can a landlord without a titanium-clad lease get rid
of a tenant who allows felonies to be committed in the apartment? And how
does a neighborhood repair the damage done by a drug dealer?

"Once it leaves 163 Susquehanna St., it's going to go somewhere else. It's
not just my problem; it's our problem," Menz said.

Menz at one point in April nailed up signs on his apartment building
advertising the presence of a drug dealer in the hope attention would shoo
the dealer away. News reports circled the nation, but it took a six-week
eviction proceeding to get rid of tenant Arthur Davis, and the accused dealers.

The eviction followed police searches and two arrests in March on charges
of drug possession with intent to sell, although the tenant was never
charged with a crime.

In the interim, Menz had no idea what was going on inside his own building,
his other tenants threatened to leave, and both his and his neighborhood's
reputations suffered at the hands of drug dealers.

His mistake, he admits, is that he didn't adequately screen his tenant and
didn't have a sufficiently protective lease. Still, he said landlords need
protection that their leases sometimes don't provide. That protection means
changing state law.

Landlord laws trace back nearly a century, and tend to protect the tenant,
said Victor Salcedo of the Landlord Forum in Binghamton. And for the time,
the laws were necessary and appropriate to protect tenants from
unscrupulous landlords.

But it means landlords like Menz who don't take the necessary precautions
to protect themselves from rogue tenants can face a six-week process to
evict a tenant. That's too long, Menz said. He would like to see a law that
allows a three-day eviction if a landlord can show evidence of criminal
conduct.

"Let's use every tool we have and let's squeeze them (drug dealers) at
every opportunity," Menz said.

Salcedo agrees. "Landlords have to be protected from unscrupulous tenants,"
he said, adding that immediate eviction should be allowed when a tenant
causes a public nuisance.

Menz has yet to push his problem beyond the bounds of discussion, although
he has met with Mayor Richard A. Bucci and other city officials. Staff
members for state Sen. Thomas W. Libous, R-Binghamton, and Assembly member
Jay Dinga, R-Chenango Bridge, have not received calls for a change in the law.

But Dinga said he already has one bill to help with the problem, and is
seeking a Democratic sponsor to get it onto the floor of the
Democrat-controlled Assembly.

"It deals with the financial side of landlords who feel tenants have
destroyed the property without being held liable," Dinga said, as well as
compensation for Social Service clients who don't pay their rent.

He would be glad to draft another addressing Menz's concerns. "This is
widespread across the state," Dinga said. "Anybody who has experienced a
rogue tenant knows it can affect four or five families."

But Menz has to tell Dinga what he wants. "If he would approach me and
outline a solution, I would consider that very seriously," Dinga said.