Saga Of Worcester Rental Registry Continues After Acrimonious Debate

WORCESTER, MA — Worcester's nearly two-year-old rental registry law has been all the rage this spring, with some councilors leading a charge to drasticaly change a law passed unanimously in 2022 with little debate.

Tuesday's city council meet saw a flurry of action on the registry law, with councilors voting to ask the city manager to make key changes. Councilors also effectively voted down an effort by District 3 Councilor George Russell — a leading critic of the rental registry — to change the law further.

Although approved by councilors in fall 2022, it took the city's inspectional service department about 15 months to fully implement the law. The registry had its formal unveiling at a landlord summit in March, which led to councilors proposing changes after outcry among landlords.

In early April, Russell was set to ask for a full reconsideration of the registry, but City Manager Eric Batista forestalled that effort by offering key changes: lowering the daily fine for landlords who don't comply with the law, and moving the deadline to comply back from April 30 to June 30.

At the April 9 council meeting, councilors voted to send Batista's amendments to District 2 Councilor Candy Mero-Carlson's Economic Development Committee for the May 1 agenda. That meeting produced several new orders for Batista, including these four key proposals:

• Allowing landlords to hire private companies to conduct inspections rather than be required to use city inspectors
• Let newly built rental properties to be exempt from joining the registry for one year
• Exempting owner-occupied rentals with three or fewer units from the law completely
• Changing the law to "ensure property owners are not held responsible for tenants denying access" for an inspection

Separately, Russell had another order on Tuesday's agenda, asking Batista for three separate but similar changes.

• Exempting owner-occupied rentals with six or fewer units from the law
• Allow landlords to hire private inspectors
• Letting landlords skirt fines if their tenants won't allow inspectors into their apartments

District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj, who has opposed changing the registry, said Russell's changes should not be allowed to move forward, and cited Worcester Fire Chief Martin Dyer's support for the law as written in 2022. She pointed to recent fires in multifamily properties with less than six units as examples why they should stay in the law, even if the owner lives in the building.

"Why are we going against experts and why are we going against the advice and support of the Worcester Fire Department chief?" Haxhiaj said.

Russell countered that Boston's rental registry has the same carveouts. He argued that landlords who live in their own building have an incentive to keep units as safe as possible.

"I think, when we’re worried about hoarders and fire hazards, I think we can trust a person who is sleeping in the house that they don't want to have a fire hazard," he said.

At-Large Councilor Moe Bergman agreed, and also supported Russell's item on tenants who refuse to let inspectors in. He said that councilors who support inspections were among those who opposed the use of police department drones to inspect homeless encampments.

"I find it incredibly ironic, it's very inconsistent, that it's OK to go into someone's apartment without any probable cause ... and that's not an invasion of privacy, but flying a drone over a public park is an invasion of privacy?" he said.

Mero-Carlson wanted Russell's orders to be sent to her economic development committee, but the council voted against doing that 8 to 3. Mero-Carlson was one of the seven "no" votes along with Haxhiaj, At-Large Councilors, Kate Toomey, Thu Nguyen and Khrystian King, Mayor Joseph Petty, District 4 Councilor Luis Ojeda and District 1 Councilor Jenny Pacillo.

The council voted unanimously twice in 2022 to approve the rental registry law (Ojeda and Pacillo were not on the council at that time) with almost no debate.