Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden’s office is holding the next landlord training session on Saturday, Sept. 29, in Wilmington.
“Our message to landlords is clear – you have responsibilities to the communities where you own rental properties,” Biden said. “Over the past 18 months we have trained more than 300 landlords on how to reduce neighborhood crime. Saturday’s training in Wilmington, where approximately half of all properties are rentals, gives owners information and tools they need to prevent and respond to crime that occurs on their properties, but also makes it clear that we will take legal action against them if they allow that activity to take place.”
A focus of the initiative is the City of Wilmington, where approximately half of its 32,000 properties are rentals. In the higher crime areas of the City, that rate increases to approximately 75 percent. The majority of criminal nuisance complaints in Wilmington and statewide that have been referred to Biden’s Nuisance Abatement Program stem from rental properties whose owners often claim to be unaware of the illegal activity on-site or lack knowledge to effectively manage their properties. These landlords frequently fail to perform criminal background checks on their tenants, and often have deficient leases and rental applications, or none at all.
The session will feature presenters from the Attorney General’s Office, police, and private legal practices. Presentations will cover topics including identifying gang and drug activity, criminal background screening, eviction proceedings, Fair Housing laws, nuisance property laws, and crime prevention through environmental design.
The trainings are focused on landlords, but are open to anyone. While training is voluntary, failure to attend or failure to abide by the suggestions will be factored into determining future courses of legal action against certain properties and their owners.
Landlords, tenants, and members of the community who have questions about this week’s landlord training, or want to report a property to the Attorney General’s office are encouraged to call the Nuisance Abatement Program at (302) 577- 8500.
