2008 Woodie Awards
Landlords under fire for skirting taxes
Mike Silvestri
Issue date: 2/21/07 Section: News
But District 2 City Councilman Bob Catlin said he's been talking with the area's state legislators, and there's no need to pressure them on anything, because they believe added profits a more efficient system would rake in from more tax evasion and fraud convictions are worth the money it would cost to implement it.
"I think there's light at the end of the tunnel here," Catlin said. "I think it should be a go."
Even if a new, computerized system is put into place, though, Ryan said identifying which residences are rented will always be difficult.
"There are some nuances," he said. "If you buy a house and your son or daughter lives there, and a few of their friends live there, we run into some problems if that's a rental."
Ryan called on the community and residents to spot overcrowding and report it to the city after checking the city's database of known rentals on its website - another new weapon to fight illegal renting, updated every two weeks - and it seems the problem is so prevalent that some council members said they had a number of suspicious addresses to report last night.
In addition to a few other individual houses, Catlin accused Parkside Apartments owners of skipping out on extra taxes because they reported only 34 of the more than 100 units in the Lakeland Road building as rentals.
"It seems like that whole building is a disaster," he said.
District 1 Councilman John Krouse said that when the city distributes letters to new owners, asking if they are renting or not, it should do it years later as well. In his neighborhood, Krouse said, landlords buy old, dilapidated houses and live in them while they fix them up in an attempt to make more money.
"It just strikes me, because I've seen it before," Krouse said, "where someone comes in, buys the house, fixes it up, gets it ready to go, and it's a rental in two years."
Contact reporter Mike Silvestri at silvestridbk@gmail.com.
"I think there's light at the end of the tunnel here," Catlin said. "I think it should be a go."
Even if a new, computerized system is put into place, though, Ryan said identifying which residences are rented will always be difficult.
"There are some nuances," he said. "If you buy a house and your son or daughter lives there, and a few of their friends live there, we run into some problems if that's a rental."
Ryan called on the community and residents to spot overcrowding and report it to the city after checking the city's database of known rentals on its website - another new weapon to fight illegal renting, updated every two weeks - and it seems the problem is so prevalent that some council members said they had a number of suspicious addresses to report last night.
In addition to a few other individual houses, Catlin accused Parkside Apartments owners of skipping out on extra taxes because they reported only 34 of the more than 100 units in the Lakeland Road building as rentals.
"It seems like that whole building is a disaster," he said.
District 1 Councilman John Krouse said that when the city distributes letters to new owners, asking if they are renting or not, it should do it years later as well. In his neighborhood, Krouse said, landlords buy old, dilapidated houses and live in them while they fix them up in an attempt to make more money.
"It just strikes me, because I've seen it before," Krouse said, "where someone comes in, buys the house, fixes it up, gets it ready to go, and it's a rental in two years."
Contact reporter Mike Silvestri at silvestridbk@gmail.com.
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