Voices

Please give landlords a break!

DUMMERSTON — Regarding the “no-fault eviction”: Wrong! It should be called “no-fault termination”!

I have been a landlord in Brattleboro since 1969. Because I am self-employed, no pension, I saw owning rental property as an opportunity to provide for my old age!

All my apartments have one-year leases, which allows a tenant not to renew after one year. Why should the owner not have the same opportunity?

If you have a good tenant, you hope to keep that person. However, sometimes it doesn’t work out, for various reasons, and the tenant will have two months to find a new rental.

In all the years that I have owned rental property, I have only once not renewed a lease! I have dealt with two evictions, which is an altogether different process. You get the sheriff involved and the courts, a lengthy and costly situation.

Please give landlords a break! We do our best to provide safe housing for our tenants. It is in our own best interest to make sure that the buildings are up to code and well maintained!

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