Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-01-10
LANDLORD HASHIS SAY
Tells Rent Payer What He Thinks
 of Water Meters.
Editor Of the Democrat:


 your valuable paper Rent Payer gave his version of the water q,lcs- tion. Will you please permit me to say word or two on the other side and to ask Rent Payer' few lues- tlons? To begin I might just as well admit that l don't know which is the better for Waterbury. meters or no meters. but it does seem to me that 1t ought to be an easy matter to get at the facts. Meters are nothing really new Other cities have been using them for years and our officials can get all the information they de- slro from such places. If they wotk all right in other towns see no req son why we should have anything to fear from them here. If they are good things hurry them along; if not we have no Ilse for them.
 Rent Payer thinks the meters will be made a pretext to advance rents. because whether the price should be higher or not the landlord will say so and push up the rent Does not your correspondent know that this water rent matter is not q private account! If the rents go up with the installation of meters tho fact will be common property, but if they don't the landlord will have no means of proving anything to the contrary, for the books are open to the public and tenants are not so bashful that they would hesitate about calling to look at them If nee essary. With this condition of af- fairs. and it will be changed. wheth- CT the price of water goes up or down or remains where it Is, the landlord will not have a ghost of show to pull the wool over the eyes of the tenant.
 Rent Payer" tells your readers that the only redress the tenant has provided he Is not satisfied is 10 move out. l have . notion that he didn't think that over carefully else he would not have said it, but it does not help his case The tenant can move out any day and take every thing belonging to him and more. He can carry off rent bill and the landlord has no redress. This is
 
 lord. who is obliged to remain and face tho music He has got to pay his bills. no matter whether the tan- ant beats him or not He can't move out in hurry. If he does he loses what equity he has in the property and this may represent the savings from a modest Income not only during his own life time, but that of his parents. The tenant has no risk of this sort to make. It may and does sometimes inconvenience him soEie to move. hut it is all over after a day or so. He has not to' sit down and stew for the balance oe hIs life over tho hard fate that deprived him of what he and his wife and children had struggled to get together. All this may seem rot to Rent Payer" and he never will sec the point until he draws his honestly ac- auired cash out of the bank and in- vest 1t in home and rents a portion of it to q bad tenant.
 Everybody in Waterbury who has rents Is anxious to get good people into them and when they get them they try hard to hold them. It is foolish for your correspondent to try to have your readers believe that a person who. has his money invested in tenement property does not care how he uses people who live in his houses. pay their rent regularly and don't abuse tho property. There may he exceptions. but as rule all such tenants get rents below the market price. because prudent neu know that it pays to rent cheaper to desirable tenants. If ths is ict so then rheerfully admit that nm as ignorant of the renting question as I am of the merits and demerits of the meter.
 One moro point and I'm through. Your correspondent speaks of real estate owners getting taxes abated because their tenements and stores happen to be idle. l don't want to hc offensive in my reply to your cor respondent. but if this be true nobody outside himself knows anything ahont lt. There is no record of any such thing being done by the city boards Probably it might interest "Rcnt Payer to know that inc sum total of taxes abated for people who own no real estate exceeds by sever al thousand dollars tlic amount abat- eil for tho sc-ealled landlords. Tho number of citizens liable to pay mili- tary and poll fax. hut evade it to say nothing of those who own pianos. diamonds and other things that the law states shall he taxed Is so large compared with the real estate list thst therc Is no comparison between them. Tn. r.ty cannot abate taxes levied on real estnte except on the ground of poverty and as it Is some thing you cannot spirit away for q time thr person in whose name it is ! listed has to foot the Hill no matter how many get the upper hand of him. With ihere facts before us should | like to know why apyhody should ' think that 'he landlord has any ad- l over the tenant. In so far | ss both are honest. and most people. tenants as well as others are honest. | fksir aims are alike. hlt assuming lhst neither means to do the right 4 hing the tenant hoi'is tho whip over | File real estate owner every fime be- | rause the latter can i,e compelled to rsy his dehts while the tenant can | hcas right and left if hc wants io and |