BIDDEFORD — On Tuesday, the city council will consider an ordinance designed to make Biddeford’s neighborhoods more peaceful. If passed, the so-called disorderly housing ordinance would make landlords responsible for their tenants’ behavior.
Depending on the number of times police are called to a property for nuisance behavior and/or criminal activity, the ordinance would require landlords to meet with city authorities and come to an agreement on how to rectify problems at their properties.
The ordinance would apply to rental properties throughout the city.
“This is the next step in neighborhood revitalization in all areas of the city,” said Linda Hardacker, the city’s Community Development coordinator.
Good landlords need to be encouraged to stay and shouldn’t be discouraged by irresponsible landlords who allow nuisance behavior or worse by the tenants to whom they rent, she said.
Hardacker has been working to help improve some of the city’s most troubled neighborhoods, like the area around Bacon Street and another downtown neighborhood on South Street.
She has been working to draft language for the proposed ordinance with a group of landlords who say they want to encourage peaceful behavior for the benefit of all Biddeford residents.
Under the proposed ordinance, the number of police visits allowed before a rental property is designated as a “disorderly house” depends on the number of rental units. For properties with five or fewer units, the property would be labeled a disorderly house by the third police visit within 30 days. It would take four visits for a building with 6 to 10 units and five visits for an apartment building with 11 or more units before being labeled a disorderly house.
Qualifying police visits include responses for many types of nuisance behavior by the owner, tenant(s), or guests. Such behavior could include loud music, noisy parties, sounds that can be heard outside the apartment, loud noise or fights inside the building or nearby involving tenants or their guests, or tenants and their guests being intoxicated near the building.
In addition, a building could be designated as a disorderly house if three or more visits by the police within 30 days involve an arrest or create a reasonable suspicion of drug use or sale, prostitution or public indecency.
Residential property owner Jeanne Jackson, of Saco, owns a six-unit building in Biddeford has been working on the ordinance with a core group since September.
“My husband and I have been landlords for a long time,” she said. “We are responsible landlords.”
She said if she has disorderly tenants, she feels it’s her responsibility to deal with them, and not subject the rest of the tenants or other neighbors to that behavior.
“This is time in our society when some of the neighborhoods are getting out of hand and this is a tool to handle it,” said Jackson.
Property owners would be on notice prior to their building being designated a disorderly house. Before that happens, a building is labeled a “hot spot” when police visit the building in response to a disturbance on two or more occasions within a 30 day timeframe.
Once a property is designated as a disorderly house, the police department or a committee that includes a member of the police department, the Codes Enforcement Office and a landlord from the yet-to-be established Biddeford Landlord’s Association, will notify the owner, who has five days to meet with the appropriate authorities.
At that meeting, the owner would be asked to enter a written agreement with the city on how to rectify the situation, which is to be implemented within a week or another date agreed to by the police department or committee.
Legal action may be taken against a property owner who fails to enter an agreement with the city and damages by the city may be sought.
If the police are required to respond to a disorderly house nine or more times within 30 days, owners must pay $50 for each response.
The proposed ordinance is modeled after a Portland ordinance, said Seth Harkness, who resides in Portland and owns several rental properties in Biddeford.
He said he favors the ordinance because after purchasing and making a significant investment in a once abandoned rental property in Biddeford, he nearly lost tenants because of the behavior of neighboring tenants.
His tenants were being harassed by neighbors and after calling police, the harassment intensified, said Harkness. When he attempted to rectify the problem by talking with the property’s absentee landlord, he said he was told that landlord couldn’t control his tenants’ behavior.
“All landlords must take responsibility” for their tenants, said Harkness. “That’s what ownership means.”
The disorderly housing ordinance “sets a standard” he said, and it’s “long overdue.”
“Quality of life issues are huge in the development of these neighborhoods,” said Harkness.
— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.
Comments are not available on this story. Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others.
We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others.
We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs.
Show less