ST. ALBANS CITY, Vt. (WCAX) – City officials in St. Albans have had enough. Crimes committed by the same people are wreaking havoc on residents and businesses. Now, the city is looking to landlords to help address the problem.
St. Albans officials are putting out a call to all landlords to start cracking down.
“More break-ins and people getting things taken out of their cars. That type of thing. I had caught someone in January trying to get into one of my cars,” said Karl Rochleau of St. Albans.
Rochleau has lived in St. Albans City for about 45 years and he is in the middle of moving. He says his street is just not the same as it used to be and he wants somebody held accountable.
“If the landlord is living in the building, I believe they should probably have more accountability than those landlords that are not living in the building,” Rochleau said.
The city of St. Albans is looking into holding landlords accountable by adjusting the impact of its rental registry with a new ordinance. If the local police are called to a long-term rental more than three times in a 90-day period, the property is deemed a public nuisance.
According to City Manager Dominic Cloud, police have been called to some properties multiple times for assaults, noise throughout the night and drug deals.
“Property owners need to pay attention to more than just whether the rent check comes in every month or not. If your tenants are regularly engaged in problematic criminal behavior, we send notice to the property owner saying, ‘Hey, we think you might have a problem here,’” Cloud said.
Residents I spoke to who did not want to be on camera tell me local landlords are cracking down on people causing problems in the area, and they are definitely for the ordinance.
“I think if they know that they’re doing illegal stuff, I think that they should give them an eviction, definitely. But if they don’t do that and they know it’s going on, definitely,” said Charles Convard of St. Albans.
Officials say if landlords don’t come up with a plan to address problems on their property, they could be fined up to $800.
Public comment sessions will be held before the ordinance becomes official.