Boston given green light by Massachusetts Legislature to slap 'scofflaw' landlords with $2,000 fines, up from $300
Published in News & Features
BOSTON — Boston could soon be empowered to raise the maximum fines for “scofflaw” landlords who flout local laws around property upkeep for the first time in more than three decades, from $300 to $2,000 for each violation.
The Massachusetts Legislature approved a bill this week that, if signed into law by the governor, would allow Boston to hike fines for the first time since 1989 — a hefty increase that proponents see as a way to better incentivize landlords to clean up their properties but was bashed as “triple inflation” by critics.
The bill would also tie further hikes in fines to inflation, with Boston able to make such adjustments every five years. Boston City Councilor Liz Breadon, who co-filed the measure at the local level, said she was “pleased” that it had passed.
“Fines of $300 are just seen as the cost of doing business for some persistent scofflaws,” Breadon said in a statement. “When the law was first enacted in 1857, the maximum fine was $50. Increasing the fines is another strategy to encourage compliance with sanitary codes as the city works to address rodent problems.”
Breadon has stated that some of the major issues around problem properties the fee increase seeks to target are improper trash disposal and rodent control.
The original home rule petition, approved by the City Council last February, noted fines had been raised on just two occasions since the law was first enacted, by way of home rule petitions that were later approved by the state Legislature.
The initial $50 fine is equivalent in purchasing power to roughly $1,766 in 2023 dollars. The $200 fine set in 1976 equates to about $1,043 in 2023 dollars, and the current $300 fine, set in 1989, translates to roughly $718 today, the petition stated.
Douglas Quattrochi, executive director of MassLandlords, Inc., which describes itself as the largest nonprofit for owners and managers of Massachusetts real estate, says the bill could worsen the city’s “unfair” fine practices, particularly against landlords who opposed the mayor’s failed bid to raise commercial tax rates.
“This is triple inflation,” Quattrochi said in a statement. “I wouldn’t want to be one of the commercial landlords who opposed the tax bill. Cities in general are notoriously unfair when it comes to levying fines. It comes down to inspector discretion.”
Gov. Maura’s Healey’s office said the bill is “under review,” and due on Jan. 9.
Two prior attempts by the City Council to raise fines to $1,000 via home rule petition did not make it through the Legislature, in 2005 and 2007.
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