Thomas Breen photo
Barnett Brodie (left): "It's impossible for me to match shingles from 50 years ago" or to force tenants to clean hallways.
The landlord didn’t contest that tenants kept a laundry basket in a common hallway. Or that he had old shingles on the house.
He did wonder why the city was pushing him to do something about it or potentially face a fine.
“Until this moment I was entirely unaware there was an opportunity to discuss items that failed on a reinspection,” landlord Barnett Brodie, seated next to his lawyer, told the Livable City Initiative (LCI) hearing officer and five city employees before him.
“I would not have jumped to a nuclear option if there was an easier path.”
That exchange came on Wednesday towards the end of the first half of one of the more recent quasi-judicial proceedings before a LCI hearing officer.
Brodie — a Monsey, N.Y.-based landlord whose companies own hundreds of apartments across New Haven — showed up to a second-floor meeting room at City Hall with local attorney Gerry Giaimo.
They sat at a U‑shaped configuration of tables across from volunteer municipal hearing officer Robert Megna, LCI attorneys Jonathan Bedosky and Sinclair Williams, LCI director Liam Brennan, LCI residential rental licensing program manager Marta Arroyo, and fellow LCI staffer Taylor Perry-Lambert.
The reason for that tete-a-tete was Brodie’s bid to contest a notice of violation that the city’s housing code enforcement agency had issued in early October for a two-family rental property he owns at 35 Farren Ave.
As Bedosky explained, unlike with other recent contested and uncontested cases before municipal hearing officers, LCI was not on Wednesday asking Megna to approve a requested financial penalty for Brodie. This case hadn’t yet gotten to the level where LCI could issue a fine — as it had not yet sent Brodie a civil citation.
Instead, Wednesday’s contested hearing was about a notice of violation that LCI sent to Brodie’s company TZ DE 2 LLC on Oct. 7. The notice stated that an inspector had found a number of problems with 35 Farren Ave. that Brodie needed to address.
That LCI violation notice ordered Brodie to repair the building’s front and rear porch, repair a Bilco door, replace part of the building’s siding, and get the property’s tenant to clean up a rear common hallway.
“Mr. Brodie notified [LCI] he intended to appeal the inspection” findings, Bedosky said on Wednesday. So, instead of considering a fine, Megna had to decide whether or not to order a reinspection.
Giaimo and Brodie criticized LCI’s October inspection and subsequent notice of violation for being imprecise, and for asking the landlord to do more than he could be expected to do.
“We’re kind of punching in the dark here,” Giaimo said about the violation notice’s lack of clear references to specific parts of New Haven’s housing code for the different problems the inspector found at the property.
Brodie dwelled on the fourth finding — that a common hallway needed to be cleaned by the tenant — as functionally impossible for him to satisfy.
He said that he rents out this two-family home to one family, on one lease. They’ve been there for a decade, with no problems. They use that hallway to store laundry baskets, Brodie said.
“I have no ability to enforce” LCI’s order that a tenant should clean that area of the hallway. “If I threw their laundry basket in the trash, I’d be stealing.”
He added: “I have no ability to make them clean.”
Brennan clarified that this inspection and its resulting violation notice were part of the city’s residential rental business licensing program. Brodie had applied for a license for this property, as is required by city law. And the inspector found that, in order for the property to receive such a license, the landlord had some repairs to make — including communicating clearly with the tenants about keeping the hallway clean.
“The order is to the company applying for the license,” Brennan said. It’s not to the tenant, or to anyone else.
Brodie countered by repeating that he does not have the power to “force a tenant to clean up the hallway. I’m not the police. … You gave me a mission that’s an impossible task.”
As for the violation notice’s order that he replace some of the building’s siding, Brodie continued, “this house was sided in the 1970s. It is in line and similar to 65 percent of houses in the neighborhood. … It’s impossible for me to match shingles from 50 years ago.”
Have you had any dialogue with LCI about your concerns with the violation order? Megna asked.
Brodie said he had sent an email requesting that he have a hearing before a hearing officer. Thus Wednesday’s meetup.
Although LCI had granted the hearing, Brennan said, this case was really not “ripe” to come before a hearing officer. Hearing officers are in place to preside over contested and uncontested cases involving civil citations and proposed fines. This case hasn’t gotten that far yet. LCI would request a fine only after issuing a civil citation, which would be sent only if the landlord didn’t address the items in a notice of violation.
Megna then ordered a reinspection — which LCI and Brodie subsequently set for Tuesday. He also encouraged Brodie to talk with LCI about his concerns, to see what the landlord and the city agency can resolve before this case rises to the level of a hearing officer review.
“I’d love to have that dialogue,” Brodie said. “I would love if we could have that conversation.”
Brodie said that his past outreach to LCI has been “in advance of a problem,” or in regard to rescheduling inspections. It’s never been “after a document [like a notice of violation] was published.”
He was encouraged to hear that, even after such a violation notice is issued, there’s still room for dialogue between the landlord and LCI.
LCI director Brennan, and top housing code enforcement deputy Mark Stroud: "The order is to the company applying for the license," and not to the tenant.
Giaimo (right), and Brodie: "We're kind of punching in the dark here."
Brodie and hearing officer Megna: We can talk it out.