Over 300 tenants object to disclosure requirements of rent control amendments
Amount of rent charged, lease term, address and other info about rental units must now be filed with city
The Asbury Park Property Owners Coalition (APPOC) announced that its members have received more than 300 signed objection letters from their tenants over the sharing of their personal information with the City as required by one of the City Council’s amendments to the Rent Control Ordinance approved on December 22, 2021, according to a news release from the coalition.
This private information includes the name, address, unit size, rent, duration of lease, and contact information for every tenant who lives in a rent-controlled building. The collection of signed objection letters was delivered to the town clerk this morning ahead of tonight’s virtual City Council Meeting, according to the release.
“We objected to this matter initially,” said Ron Simoncini, Executive Director of the APPOC. “Not only did the City Council ignore us on the tenant privacy issue, the City Council’s amendments to the Rent Control Ordinance now also includes small property owners who have little capacity or experience in compliance, and now must register not just their rents, but the size of every room in their house – and they gave them less than 3 weeks’ notice to do so before the ordinance goes into effect.”
The City Council’s December 22 amendments to the Rent Control ordinance also increased the number of properties that fall under the ordinance from five to three units and imposes fines of up to $2,000 dollars per unit, per day for non-compliance for registration of owners’ units. Also changed in the amendments was the allowed rent increase to 3.5% per year versus the previously passed rent increases which were pegged to the Consumer Price Index.
“The City has not even held one informational session that addresses compliance. We expected to hear a report from the Rent Levelling Board at the January 13th rent control meeting, which was the first meeting after the passage of the amendments on December 22nd, but the Director – who also failed to recite the pledge of allegiance correctly – and staff showed up without a report,” said Simoncini. “The meeting was on ZOOM, but no staff member had access to a computer file that they could share. It has been over a week since the meeting, and despite pledging to circulate the report, no one has seen it.”
After the Council amended the ordinance on December 22, the City sent its rent registration forms to property owners via regular mail to the addresses of the properties, the release said. However, in the case of small property owners who do not reside at the actual property where the notice was sent, it could take weeks before the mail actually reaches the property owner who is responsible for filling out the required forms — and in some cases it may not reach them at all, according to the release. Meanwhile, property owners are required to used certified mail to reply.
“The new rent leveling attorney — who thankfully, is an experienced and even-handed person — provided some context and prospective solutions to the inappropriate timeframes for notice, but the property owners remain mistrustful over the situation, and pointed out that a misadministration of the ordinance could easily cause a property owner to be bankrupted due to these exorbitant fines,” said Simoncini.
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