BRATTLEBORO — This town’s government has become the second in the state to now place a municipal cap on rental move-in costs.
“There’s one fact I’m certain of — if we pass this ordinance, any tenant undertaking a new rental agreement will have an easier time of it, and there are thousands of those people in this town,” Selectman Daniel Quipp said upon a 3-2 board vote of approval.
A new Tenants Union of Brattleboro — noting about half of local residents are renters who often struggle to pay first and last month’s charges and a large security deposit in one lump sum — asked the town in September to adopt an ordinance similar to one in the state’s largest city of Burlington that prohibits landlords from preemptively collecting final-month fees.
“The enormous costs of securing a new place to live is an ever-rising hurdle to housing people in our town,” the advocacy group wrote in its request to the Selectboard. “There is no reason to require more than the first month’s rent and a security deposit equal to that amount before allowing a tenant to move in.”
In a split decision, the Selectboard voted 3-2 in October to pursue an ordinance, only to have local landlords voice enough opposition to spur leaders to temporarily hit the pause button and explore other options.
Local leaders are studying proposals to create funds to help low-income renters who can’t afford move-in costs as well as landlords challenged by unpaid rent. But seeing the challenges of swiftly adopting such options, the Selectboard voted this week to formally approve a municipal ban on preemptively collecting final-month fees.
(Barre used to be the second Vermont community to have such an ordinance, only to rescind it this year.)
Brattleboro Selectboard Chair Tim Wessel and Vice Chair Elizabeth McLoughlin, voicing reservations, voted against the plan.
“I know of no other business that we regulate in such a manner,” McLoughlin said. “I think that there are a lot of people who are making ends meet by being a small-time landlord, and this could crush them.”
But Quipp and colleagues Ian Goodnow and Brandie Starr cast a majority of ballots to approve it.
“The fact that this ordinance can have potentially a really positive effect on such a large portion of the people who live in Brattleboro — it’s a common sense move,” Goodnow said. “Housing is a huge problem in Vermont, and we need to continue to work towards many solutions. I’m excited to continue the conversation, because it doesn’t end here.”
