Clock Starts Ticking On Landlord Fines

The city sent civil citations to owners of seven properties in one day as part of stepped-up efforts to prevent another disaster like the May 5 fatal fire in the Hill.

The citations came from the city government’s anti-blight agency, the Livable City Initiative (LCI). They cited owners of the properties for violating the city’s Residential Rental Business License Ordinance by ​“fail[ing] to be present at the two previously scheduled inspections and/or fail[ing] to provide the tenant consent or waiver at the time of the scheduled inspection(s).”

The city will fine the landlords $100 a day ​“for each day the violation continues.” 

The citations all went out on Wednesday. LCI Executive Director Serena Neal-Sanjurjo said the action begins a planned increase in enforcement to get a better handle on blighted properties. That mission grew more urgent following the May 5 fire at 150 West St., which a landlord — who repeatedly failed to show up for LCI licensing inspections — apparently converted into an illegal rooming house where the smoke detectors didn’t work. The fire killed two tenants and injured numerous other people, including four firefighters.

In its wake, LCI has publicly pitched plans to improve the licensing program. Under the current program, only four staff inspectors currently chase after 25,000 rental units. Click here for a story describing those challenges and LCI’s planned improvements.

The strategy includes more promptly fining landlords who miss appointments and referring cases of unfixed code violations to the state’s attorney for criminal prosecution, Neal-Sanjurjo said.

“It’s part of our restructuring that we’ve been doing in the last year. We’re now just moving into a position where we’re working more collaboratively with the marshals. This is part of the plan we’ve had in place for some time. We’re trying to move forward,” Neal-Sanjurjo said.

“We don’t ever want anything like what happened at West Street to happen again.”

LCI Deputy for Code Enforcement Rafael Ramos, who signed the seven citations, said the city’s also hoping for help in the form of passage of a state bill to enable LCI to fine landlords more than $250 for failing to cooperate with signing up for residential licenses in the first place (rather than filling out forms and then failing to show up for scheduled inspections).

The addresses covered by the citations are 17 Howe St., 33 Howe St., 1317 Ella Grasso Blvd., 271 Crown St., 38 Tilton St., 166 York St., and 1555 State St.

Patrick Tarantino, owner of 1317 Grasso Blvd, told the Independent that he hasn’t yet received the notice. He said he didn’t know about any inspection appointment.

Tarantino, a contractor, said he bought the two-family house a couple of decades ago with a friend, ​“a good guy who didn’t have a house to live in. The friend lived in one of the units. He said the friend handled ​“the day to day bullshit. I handled the bigger repairs.” His friend has since moved out.

“I would never buy an investment property now in New Haven because of the bullshit they make you go through,” Tarantino said. He said he intends to find the notice and respond.

1555 State owner Sally Saldarmarco could not be reached at a listed Wallingford number.

Sol Lipschitz, a property manager for Pike International, said he’s reaching out to LCI to reschedule the appointments on the other five properties, which his company oversees. He said Pike has made a point of working closely with city inspectors on a daily basis at all its properties and responding quickly when matters fall between the cracks.

“We’ve been speaking constantly,” he said. ​“We’ve been upgrading constantly.”