Adams Board of Health Hears Tenant-Landlord Disputes
ADAMS, Mass. — Tenant-landlord tensions were a key source of conflict at at last week's Board of Health meeting.
Chairman Dave Rhoades informed the subject of one dispute that the Board of Health "is here to protect tenants from faulty living" situations.
The individual owns an apartment on Pleasant Street. Code Enforcement Officer Mark Blaisdell had issued a correction order to fix various aspects of the apartment, including a window that was improperly screwed shut and a spongy kitchen floor, which he apparently only corrected on the surface without assessing the subfloor.
The apartment owner has reportedly complied with Blaisdell's orders in the past, but appealed this one because he disagreed with the code enforcement officer's assessment of the apartment. He asked the board multiple times if a member could come to the apartment and "take a look" at the fixes he had made, but Rhoades informed him that it was not the board's job to do that.
Rhoades said Blaisdell is the professional who has the ability to assess whether a living situation is within the health code, not the board.
The owner also said he had issues with the tenant who was renting the apartment. He said the tenant hasn't paid rent since January, and that she had behaved poorly toward the contractors who were going to fix some of the problems in the apartment.
The tenant disputed this latter fact, saying she the contractors had taken out the toilet in the bathroom and then left for hours to work on other apartments, thereby leaving her without a toilet. When she tried to communicate this with the contractors, she said, they were unresponsive because "they didn't speak English."
The board eventually upheld Blaisdell's correction order, requesting that the tenant and owner work together to ensure that the work is done in a timely fashion.
This case partly mirrored another that came before the board on Wednesday. According to Blaisdell, the bathroom ceiling of an apartment on Howland Avenue had collapsed sometime before the pandemic. Above the damaged ceiling area was an old tin roof that "appeared to have been rotting."
"There appeared to have been paint," Blaisdell said, "and paint from that era would typically contain lead." Blaisdell said there was also a black substance there, which he said was most likely mold.
Blaisdell noted that the tenant has three young children, the oldest being 7 years old and the youngest 7 months old. He reminded the board that lead paint can prove damaging to the development of children.
In order to address this issue, Blaisdell issued an order that the owners fix the ceiling and clean up the potential lead paint and mold. Blaisdell also informed the board that he had repeatedly been met with hostility by the owners when he had gone to re-inspect the property. He had referred the case to town counsel, as the owners evidently had not provided the tenants with proper alternative housing while there was a health hazard in their apartment.
The owners, Michael Ciempa and his son, also named Michael, argued that they fixed everything in Blaisdell's order and that there were no longer any health hazards (Blaisdell later issued a condemnation order, which was the subject of the discussion). The younger Ciempa also said Blaisdell had missed an inspection, which would have proved that he was in compliance with the original correction order.
Blaisdell, for his part, said he did not attend the inspection referred to by Ciempa because of the hostility he had reportedly experienced previously.
The Ciempas also said they had lead paint certificates, which they had given to Blaisdell, but Blaisdell informed the board that they were invalid now because paint had fallen into the apartment since the apartment had been certified. (The latest certificate was reportedly dated 1998.)
The owners also said their tenant has not paid rent for two years, but that they could not evict the tenant because they apparently could not do so when the tenant had an active complaint with the Board of Health.
The board also upheld Blaisdell's order in this case.
In other business:
- John Barrett of the Adams Fire District reported to the Board of Health that "the process has begun for our Water Department … to provide water for the Greylock Glen," referring to the Fire District meeting that took place earlier this month. The Fire District will assess the system to ensure that it is not a detriment to the town.
- The board issued a "strong advisory" for schools to institute a universal masking policy, which the board intends to reassess after 30 days of each school's start date. This action is expected to be superseded by the state Board of Education's vote on authorizing a universal masking policy on Tuesday for all public schools.
Tags: board of health,
