Eric and Sharon Annis

Charter change would make housing worse for everyone

Banning no-cause lease terminations ‘is surely not in any way equitable and absolutely does not balance the rights of housing providers with the rights of tenants’

My wife, Sharon, and I own two apartment houses with five rental units next door to us. We keep a close eye on the property, and I do most of the maintenance on the five apartments.

We urge voters to vote no to the proposed change to the Town Charter regarding “no-cause” termination of a lease. It is not good for Brattleboro, not good for tenants, and not good for housing providers.

In all those years, we have needed to use the “no-cause” lease termination law only twice — in both cases because of a problem tenant.

In both cases, these tenants were disturbing the others with loud noise and harassment. They were damaging the apartment, abusing girlfriends, and violating their lease by smoking in the apartment.

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