Landlord group tells General & Housing committee court delays, rising costs and a ’Decker Towers’ pattern are worsening evictions

Angela Zajkowski, director of the Vermont Landlords Association, told the House Committee on General and Housing on Jan. 29, 2025, that landlords statewide are seeing longer court delays, rising operating costs and a pattern of tenants returning to neighboring units after evictions that she said is permitted under a Vermont Supreme Court decision.

Zajkowski said the state lacks a rental registry but estimated “about 75,000 to 76,000 rental units in the state of Vermont,” and that through October 2024 there were “a little bit over 1,800” evictions in court records. She told the committee those statistics are the only consistent court-based data the state has on eviction filings.

The landlord association director described several factors that she said have increased eviction pressure: an 18‑month eviction moratorium during the COVID‑19 period, large but time‑limited rental assistance programs that ended in 2022, and rising costs for property taxes, repairs and insurance. “Most insurance policies are on a replacement cost value,” Zajkowski said, “so the more expensive it is to replace a building, the more expensive your premiums become.”

Zajkowski told lawmakers that the eviction process in Vermont is effectively two steps: a termination notice followed, if the tenant does not leave voluntarily, by a court filing. She said termination notices are public only when filed in court, so the 1,800 figure represents filings rather than all notices sent. She described court processing times for eviction cases as lengthy — on the order of four to six months and with a six‑month clearance parameter in some courts — and said that delay contributes to pressure for landlords and tenants.

She flagged a recurring problem she called the “Decker Towers issue,” referring to a Burlington property and to a legal precedent she identified as State v. April Dixon from the 1980s. Zajkowski said the case has been interpreted to mean that if an evicted person is invited back onto a property by another resident, the entry is not treated as trespass and the landlord must repeat eviction proceedings against successive occupants. “We have tenants who landlords are going through a process to evict out of a property who are then not prohibited from coming back onto that property because they're being invited by another resident,” she said.

On so‑called no‑cause notices, Zajkowski said the phrase is often misunderstood. She told the committee a no‑cause notice functions as a nonrenewal at the end of a lease term rather than as a mechanism to remove a tenant mid‑lease. “A no cause notice is not something that a landlord can use in the middle of a year's lease,” she said, adding that landlords use the nonrenewal tool to address safety and nuisance concerns without forcing other residents to testify in court.

Committee members asked several follow‑up questions. Members suggested additional data sources for tracking rental inventory and single‑unit or accessory dwelling unit availability—U.S. Census data, municipal appraiser records and tax‑department landlord certificate filings were cited as possible leads. One member asked Zajkowski to provide a copy or citation of State v. April Dixon; she agreed to send information.

Zajkowski said landlords do not welcome evictions and that many would prefer tenants who pay rent and respect property. She told the committee she has heard reports of landlords leaving the rental market, single‑family homes returning to owner occupancy, and some units sitting vacant rather than being rented.

The committee did not take legislative action at the Jan. 29 hearing but members signaled interest in continuing the discussion; several asked Zajkowski to return for further testimony and requested follow‑up data on eviction trends and legal options.

The committee will continue its hearings on housing policy in subsequent meetings and scheduled additional testimony for the same day on the Human Rights Commission.