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No Extra Credit for Montgomery Landlords
Curiosity over rental properties in Louis Wilen's Olney neighborhood led him to a methodical search of Montgomery County tax records.
(By Katherine Frey For The Washington Post)
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Dan Ercolani, assistant supervisor of the Montgomery state assessment office, said he could not account for so many miscoded properties.
"I don't understand how that could have happened," he said. "If in fact all the 2,700 properties were issued rental licenses, [notification] should have come back to us from the county."
He and Young said the state did not have the resources to verify the accuracy of homeowners' claims about the status of their properties. "We don't have any enforcement people here," Ercolani said.
Young said state assessors inquire about the use of a property when they visit it, but if no one is home, there is little they can do. With tight budgets and low salaries, it is hard to keep people on staff, he added. "Our employees are underpaid compared with what the county and the federal government pays."
Montgomery officials sent Chhuan's spreadsheet to the assessment office on May 24, and it has indeed proved usable. Many of the properties on the list have already been recoded.
Praisner offered to issue Wilen a certificate of appreciation for his efforts, but he declined.
"I'm a little surprised more people aren't noticing this stuff and complaining," Wilen said, noting the vast amounts of information available to anyone with Internet access and the inclination to practice a little vigilance.
"He is very, how shall I say, unassuming," said his wife, Lori. "He does these things and even if they're successful, he's very, very modest."
