Despite successes on the legislative front in 1999, real estate industry officials are spending little time looking back on the year that was as they prepare for a busy 2000 on Beacon Hill.

Last year, organizations like the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and the Greater Boston Real Estate Board lent their support to the home inspector licensing bill, proposed by Sen. Cheryl Jacques, D-Needham, and Rep. Kevin Honan, D-Boston. The bill, which required home inspectors to be licensed and regulated home inspector referrals from real estate agents, was eventually passed by both houses and signed into law by Gov. Paul Cellucci in late 1999.

While legislation like the home inspector bill successfully made its way through the State House, several other real estate-related bills languished as the legislative year drew to a close. However, real estate officials are already working to make sure they’re not forgotten in 2000.

Near the top of the list of priorities for both MAR and GBREB is the passage of the Community Preservation Act. The bill, if passed, would allow communities across the commonwealth to raise money through taxes to be used to purchase open space or build affordable housing. Differing versions of the bill were passed by the House and Senate in 1999. A conference committee was established to work on a compromise, but that group has not met yet.

Both GBREB and MAR officials said they will continue to fight for passage of the House version of the bill, which does not allow for a property transfer tax and provides matching funds for towns.

It’s definitely going to be quite a busy year, yet again, said Edwin Shanahan, CEO of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board. Clearly [the CPA is] well up there on our list of priorities. We want to ensure that what ends up coming out of committee does not include that transfer tax.

This is a big issue for all Realtors, said Fred Meyer, president of MAR. We’re not afraid to pay for a program out of property taxes, so in effect we’re saying we’re willing to tax ourselves … Just don’t make people pay for a place they’re moving away from.

Shanahan said Cellucci is willing to sign a CPA into law without the property transfer tax option. The deal is there if the Senate wishes to go along with it, Shanahan said. We’ve got landmark legislation that’s ready to be signed into law. You need three-thirds of government to concur, and right now we have two-thirds concurring.

Also a priority for 2000 is a mandatory rent-escrowing bill. The bill, proposed last year, would require that tenants who wish to withhold rent from their landlords because of a dispute place the rent money in an escrow account while the conflict is being resolved. Landlords in general have said they favor rent escrowing because of instances where the claims against the landlord were determined to be unfounded but back rent owed to them ultimately could not be collected. If a tenant’s claims were found to be valid, they would be entitled to get back the money they placed in escrow.

‘Work To Persuade’
According to Robert Nash, executive vice president of MAR, the rent escrow is still being studied by the Housing and Urban Development Committee.

Hopefully, we can come to some sort of agreement on the issue, Nash said. This is a vital issue for landlords. Collecting that rent will allow them to make upgrades to their building. It’s imperative that we get this thing through.

I have yet to hear a good argument as to why we shouldn’t have a rent escrowing bill, Meyer said.

Officials are also hoping the Legislature will pass a bill that would affect the tax credits afforded to property owners who perform lead-based paint abatement procedures in their buildings.

I was disappointed that the lead-paint tax credit bill got sent to study [committee], said James C. Dougherty, immediate past president of MAR. That would have increased the tax credit for removing lead paint, which is long overdue.

Nash said his organization will continue to work to persuade legislators to move the bill out of study. Currently, property owners are given a tax credit of $1,500 per unit where lead abatement has taken place and a $500 credit for remedial work pertaining to lead-based paint. The bill proposes increasing the lead abatement credit to $2,500 and the remedial credit to $1,000.

Landlords are in a Catch-22, Meyer said. They can’t discriminate against families with children, but then they’re forced to spend thousands of dollars deleading their units.

We shouldn’t be saying to these small landlords that they have to spend thousands of dollars to get rid of lead paint, he continued. We should be doing things to encourage more people to become landlords, not scare them away.

Also on the agenda this year on Beacon Hill are bills pertaining to smart growth and development, including legislation that would make it easier for towns and developers that want to proceed with cluster zoning projects. The cluster zoning bill passed the House last year and is pending in the Senate.

What we have to do is get the various powers in government to focus in on addressing the issues, Shanahan said, referring to proposals that would remove some of the obstacles in the way of development. We can’t have politicians saying ‘We need more affordable housing’ and then not take steps requisite for making housing more affordable.

You can’t not take barriers away then expect developers to produce housing for less money, he continued, adding that the same politicians who call for lower cost housing often are the ones who won’t make the building process easier. We have met the enemy and they are us, he said.

I’m not advocating the lessening of standards. We want good quality housing, but you can’t keep driving up costs because it necessitates a higher level of rent.

Meyer said he also hopes to pursue supporting legislation that helps cities and towns develop better master plans. I want to encourage planning that includes open space and affordable housing, he said. A lot of communities don’t know how much this will benefit them. A little planning can go a long way.

While there will be a lot of lobbying to get bills passed at the State House, one bill property owners are vehemently opposing is legislation that would allow cities and towns to impose rent regulations on expiring-use buildings. That bill, which would affect any housing that had previous government involvement such as a federally insured mortgage, ended 1999 in a state of discussion in the House Ways and Means Committee after being passed in the Senate.

The issue of rent control surfaced last year when Quincy and a handful of other Massachusetts cities proposed local referendums concerning rent control. However, state approval would be needed before anything could be enacted locally.

This would undo the will of the voters and put more burdens back on the communities, Shanahan said, referring to a statewide vote in the mid-1990s that ended rent control in Massachusetts. This would affect a lot of people.

While all of the aforementioned legislation was able to carry over to this year’s political calendar after failing to pass in 1999, the bills will die at the end of the 2000 legislative calendar because of a two-year legislative cycle.