🚀 go-pugleaf

> altonp@netcom.com (Alton Pouncey) writes:
>: For the record, I think that entry-without-renter's-permission stuff is a
>: pretty lousy policy and I don't blame anyone for not liking it.  But

Used indiscriminately, it is not a policy that will win you friends and
influence people to like you.

But it *is* necessary, at times. A concrete example: Say that I
owned/operated a 300-unit apartment complex. I have a legal obligation
(and liability if I don't) to keep working smoke detectors in all units.
I *need* to check their function once every six months or so. I can:
	a) notify tenants that on day X we will visit each apt.;
	   please be there at time Y if you can, else we will come in
	   anyway and leave notification that we were there.
	b) spend three months trying to arrange times for each of the 
	   300 families to be there - and it will never get done.
	c) get search warrants (as one poster suggested!), drowning 
	   the gov't in paper every six months. They would probably
	   resort to automatically approving requests, making the
	   privacy gain nil....

The same is true for pest treatment, safety maintenance, etc. Since I am
legally liable (as the owner) I cannot just say "please check and tell
me if if doesn't work" since I'll get sued by the people next door to
the apt. that burned down, and I'll (most likely) lose. [People who
stay home and refuse to open up are a special case, but there are laws
on the books to cover/restrict owner behavior in such situations.]

Got any better ideas?

>Don, your entire post is exactly what I was thinking.  You (plural) may 
>have a better shot taking the TAA to court in an anti-trust case as TAA 
>is pretty much a monopoly in Texas.

As I've said before, the TAA is not a "consortium", but an advisory
association. You can belong or not. The TAA lease is a "recommended"
lease, not a mandatory one for members. Members are free to modify or
make up their own. Suing the TAA will get you nowhere. They certainly
have no monopoly on anything.

When times get bad for owners (when the shortage of units abates), you
will see them stumbling all over themselves to give better service.
Right now, though, they call the shots, in the same way that the only
car dealer in town could call the shots, if there were only one car
dealer in town. Free enterprise in action - you can always start your
own business if you don't like the current state of affairs.

cheers,
mark

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Mark Brown     | AIX Architecture             |   Civil Liberty
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