Landlord Accountability Meeting

Any notes or discussions from the meeting last night at the NSC on landlord accountability for tenant activities? I did receive the following links to help us 'little' people finds contact info for landlords:

1) http://geo.cityofrochester.gov/defmenu.asp?qrytype=address
Enter the property House Number and Street. It's very fussy about spelling, etc.
If you leave the House # blank it will give you all the properties on a given street.
If you enter an owner's name it will give you all properties owned in the City. (E.g., Staley, Arthur owns 7 in Rochester)

2) http://www.monroecounty.gov/apps/propertyapp.php
This gets you the address where the owner's tax bill is mailed, which is usually his/her home or business. Follow the menu selections for "Residential", and "Pay/View Taxes". Enter the house #, Street, Suffix and Zip. This one is also very fussy about spelling, etc. As above, leaving the house # blank gets you all the houses on a given street. These can be sorted if you want by clicking on column headings. (Arthur Staley's tax bill goes to 53 DEAN RD, SPENCERPORT, NY 14559) This info could be stale.

3) http://www.whitepages.com/reverse_phone
This gets you the owner's phone, if it's listed. You may enter names, but I prefer to enter the owner's address and zip code. ( Arthur Staley is at (585) 392-3180) Again, this info could be stale.

4) https://gov.propertyinfo.com/NY-Monroe/
This is Monroe County public records search. It has copies of property sales and mortgages, and much more. You'll need to "register" the first time you use it, and create a user name & password. There's no charge. This site is useful for finding an owner's home address if he/she uses a PO Box for tax mailing. I like to search by owner's Name and then check the most recent mortgage document for the owner's address. You can spend hours exploring public records. It's addictive.

This info will help homeowners to get down and personal with landlords who refuse to acknowledge ongoing problems. They can now receive 'did you know' letters where they live. (and with the help of Google translated in any language) And as an avid photographer, they can now receive photos and oh yeah, digital MP3 recordings of the loud music and fights at all hours of the day or night. I was able to contact a landlord at home late one night. I couldn't sleep so I wanted him woke up too. Told him I would call him every time his tenants disturbed my sleep. I'm woke, you woke. Needless to say, the street hasn't had that problem since from that address!!

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Permalink Reply by Margy Meath on July 29, 2011 at 8:46am

This is great Judy - the websites you listed above can be very helpful! The Monroe County site offers a LOT of information about various things..... you can see information about foreclosures, tax liens, DBA's, pistol permits, property ownership, mortgages, etc!

Marlborough ROad tried unsuccessfully to work through NET to get a particular rental property addressed. NET kept telling us they couldn't reach the landlord, etc, etc.... with a bit of 'investigative work', one of my neighbors tracked down the landlord's name/phone number and called them directly. This particular landlord was actually quite helpful and worked quickly to resolve the problems associated with the house!

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Permalink Reply by Judi Baker on July 29, 2011 at 9:33am

Yeah Margy, sometimes ya just gotta take the bull by the horns. Technology is WONDERFUll! With the City's budget cuts and decrease in services the DIY policy is in effect!!

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Permalink Reply by Judi Baker on August 4, 2011 at 11:20am

Most landlords on this street know I WILL MAKE SOME NOISE when tenants can't or won't be neighborly! A few have had to dig down in their poskets to pay fines for violations. Picketing in front of the landlords house with BIG photo signs so all their neighbors can see how their neighbor treats us urban residents is next on my list! LOL I even have a pair of binoculars with a camera on them!

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Permalink Reply by DeWain Feller on August 13, 2011 at 10:24pm

Thanks for gathering this information Judy. The 19th Ward Community Association will be reactivating its Housing Committee soon, and a major focus will be on problem properties and landlords. We need to be much more assertive with the NSC (formerly NET), and we need to more assertive with landlords themselves. The landlords are very active and vocal at City Hall about getting their way, and we need to make sure that we are equally active and vocal about the interests of the neighborhood.