Judge: City can’t press charges alleging landlord flouted code

BURLINGTON — A judge has dismissed 88 criminal charges the city brought against a landlord for what it alleged is a pattern of unresolved housing code violations.

The ruling, issued last week by Chittenden Superior Court Judge James Crucitti, invalidates Burlington’s criminal penalties for property owners who fail to comply with Code Enforcement Department orders to correct violations of the city’s minimum housing standards.

Attorneys for Soon Kwon, who owns four rental properties near the University of Vermont, hailed Crucitti’s decision as a rebuke of Burlington in its attempt at “abusing Vermont law in (its) quarrel with Mr. Kwon.”

Kwon and his attorneys said they believe Code Enforcement has treated him unfairly because of a “history of animosity” between Kwon and Code Enforcement Director Bill Ward. However, the city argues that Kwon is among a tiny minority of landlords who refuse to comply with Code Enforcement orders.

City Attorney Eileen Blackwood said the city’s housing ordinance is structured so that violations of the minimum housing standards are a civil matter, but failing to correct a violation after receiving an order can lead to criminal charges. The criminal charge carries a fine of $200 to $500 and up to 30 days in jail.

The charges filed against Kwon in February were all brought using the portion of the city’s housing ordinance that allows criminal penalties for failure to comply with Code Enforcement orders. Of the 88 charges against Kwon, 55 were for actual code violations, while the rest were for subsequent failures to fix those violations.

“Burlington has taken an approach to housing code enforcement that a huge percentage, 99 percent of the time, when it inspects and asks people to correct a problem, they correct it,” Blackwood said. “We’re really looking at just those few times when there’s a landlord that doesn’t comply with being told they need to correct a problem.”

Crucitti says in his decision that it violates Vermont law for Burlington to impose criminal penalties for failure to comply with an order from Code Enforcement. However, he suggests state law would allow criminal charges for the underlying violation.

Burlington has 30 days from when the ruling was issued Aug. 1 to appeal Crucitti’s decision to the Vermont Supreme Court.

Blackwood said the city will decide by the end of the month whether to suggest the City Council change the ordinance and create criminal penalties for violating its minimum housing standards, or appeal the case based on arguments Crucitti rejected.

The criminal complaint against Kwon listed violations for hazardous electrical wiring; electrical work done without a permit; failure to replace toilets, dishwashers and bathtubs that had backed up or weren’t flushing properly; a host of issues relating to the accumulation of cracked and chipped lead paint; failure to replace broken windows; and failure “to remove pigeons” living inside a stairwell.

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