Hello all,

New Castle County deserves credit for cracking down on landlords with a long record of violations.

The announcement earlier this week in Claymont area  came with its share of drama.

The county called out a Hockessin landlord and real estate company owner whose Claymont properties  piled up a long record of violations,  unpaid fees and back taxes.  

The plot thickened when the landlord showed up at one of his properties that was used as a prop for the announcement.

Executive Matt Meyer is attempting to make the county a more business-like operation. His administrtion is also looking under the  counch cushions for cash, while facing expenses  that include automatic pay hikes for new employees. 

The question one might ask is why the crackdown took so long.

Yes, too many people in county government were looking the other way during multiple administrations. 

Another factor was a  painfully slow recovery from the recession that led to a high rate of foreclosures and blight.

Efforts to aid homeowners in trouble in some cases only delayed the inevitable and kept foreclosures at a high level when compared to other parts of the county.

Complicating matters were sloppy lending practices with out of town mortgage holders not fully aware of the location of their deteriorating properties. Many 125 percent of equity “liar loans” led to owners walking away.

In other cases, homes were passed down to children who failed to maintain properties and sometimes became bad landlords or owners.

Thanks to the above issues, some neighborhoods have slipped into marginal status.

And even the most affluent areas have unkempt or abandoned houses that are driving down property values.

One can add counties and the state to the list of greedy culprits.

High real estate transfer fees on sales that were passed with little thought of the consequences make “flipping” of homes less attractive and more importantly discourage those with moderate incomes from buying fixer-uppers.

Good landlords are also facing laws that tend to favor tenants, due in part to abusiive tactics by rouge landlords.  While the intent is worthy, getting a bad tenant can be cumbersome and costly. 

As home prices elsewhere in the Delaware Valley put buying out of the reach of many, Delaware has a chance to offer an affordable alternative.

Cracking down on  bad landlords is a small step in the right direction. Much more needs to be done. – Doug Rainey, publisher.