It’s a common story around Niagara Falls.

Some undeserving tenant is being victimized by their slum landlord and the home they’re living in is riddled with problems and hazards. Often, the issue isn’t resolved until the tenant gives up and either moves out or contacts the city for assistance.

But there’s another story that isn’t told as often — the one where bad tenants cause large amounts of damage to a home or apartment before moving out and leaving an unsuspecting landlord with the burden of repairs.

It’s a story Lisa Routhier can now tell. She recently evicted a family of four from her home on 20th Street and discovered more than $20,000 in damages. Carpet was ripped out, drywall was broken and piled up on the floor, lights were busted, doors were removed and even the electrical outlets were taken.

Routhier was left dumbstruck.

“It’s just a nightmare,” she said while walking through piles of debris and broken drywall on the second floor of her house. “If you do this to a hotel room, you go to jail. When are laws going to change for landlords?”

She appears to have the support of city lawmakers in her quest for justice.

“The help she needs is the help a lot of homeowners need in this city,” Niagara Falls Mayor Vince Anello said. “We always hear about the slum landlords, but never about landlords victimized by their tenants. That has to stop.”

Anello said state legislation needs to be changed to allow the city to go after tenants for certain infractions. For example, the city currently cites the homeowner if too much trash has piled up outside the property even if it’s the tenant’s responsibility to dispose of it.

“Right now, the onus is on the owner,” said city Building Inspector Guy Bax. “We should have some kind of restraints put on tenants.”

Bax points out the inspections department does not take sides between a landlord and tenant dispute. To protect their property, he suggests owners take photographs of the home prior to renting it out and then do frequent inspections while tenants are living inside.

“Those are common sense things,” Bax said.

In Routhier’s case, she believes most of the damage was done after she served the tenants with an eviction notice on Nov. 15 for not paying the rent. The two sides apparently had other disputes as well, according to records in the city’s inspection department.

Bax said the tenants filed a complaint against Routhier in October because the home had no power or heat. During a visit on Oct. 17, an inspections officer cited Routhier for electrical concerns and other code violations in the home’s basement. In addition, the report said smoke detectors needed to be installed.

Routhier was given until Nov. 18 to fix the violations, a deadline she missed, according to Bax.

“Our office sent a letter to Mrs. Routhier on Dec. 5 saying she had failed to comply with the electrical violations and that she had 30 more days to correct them or her electrical service would be disconnected,” Bax said.

As for the damage done by the tenants, Routhier has already contacted her insurance company and attorney and plans on filing civil charges against her former tenants.

“This is vandalism and I’m taking this to the max,” she said.

In the 20 years she’s owned the 20th Street home, Routhier said she never had a problem with other tenants. The most recent occupants lived there for about two years.

Among the changes Routhier would like the city to impose is giving homeowners the authority to shorten the eviction process and prevent such situations from happening elsewhere. Right now, landlords have to wait up to two months to get a court date to evict a tenant, a timespan during which the tenant is still living at the home and not paying rent.

“During that time, they could be destroying your home and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Routhier said. “This is happening all over the city.”

Anello agreed and has promised Routhier he will look into ways to alter legislation to give landlords more protection.

“We have to do something because it’s criminal what some of these tenants are getting away with,” the mayor said.

Source :- niagara-gazette