Keep your government hands in our business

[kinvore.livejournal.com]

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend in the States, where we honor the men and women who died in military service. You'll see all kinds of patriotic fervor during this time, hell even PBS gets involved, but I'm not by any means complaining. Then we get stuff like this:

A property management company is under hot water for telling a tenant that after Memorial Day he has to take down an American Flag that he has on display in his window.

Here's what gets me:

Dawn Price said she now works to amend the federal Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 2005, which states no "condominium association, cooperative association, or residential real estate management association" may stop someone from flying the American flag. The law, however, does not apply to renters.

First I'm amazed we even have such a law to begin with, and I'm even more amazed that they want it even more intrusive. I thought conservatives didn't want government telling business what to do? Did these tenants not read their contract before signing it? Shouldn't we let the market decide if this is a good business practice?

It just seems like an example of glaring hypocrisy. Freedom is a double-edged sword, and sometimes it means having to tolerate things you don't agree with.

Comments

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

Why yes, because there is only 1 apartment complex for me to live in, I have no choices whatsoever over where I live.

The real solution of course is that not everyone wants flags being flown in their community and as such some landlords would allow it and others would not leaving the people free to choose which they preferred and every one is (at least reasonably) happy.

Simply put if enough people wish the ability to hang flags from the windows of their rental property then there will be landlords who allow such because it will give them a leg up on their competitors who do not allow it. If there are not enough people who care enough about that capability then it is not an important enough issue to enough people for the government to get involved with in the first place

[magdalene74.livejournal.com]

do landlords generally dictate what kind of curtains someone hangs? i mean how intrusive does it get? In most states a landlord cannot interfere with a tenants quiet enjoyment of property they pay rent for, wouldnt this fall under that category?

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

Forget landlords, many Home Owners Associations do that to people who own their own homes (including the one I am a part of).

And no, an externally displayed object does not qualify as "quiet enjoyment" because it being viewed externally sends messages to prospective tenants and may drive business away.

If you want to hang a flag in your living room then there isn't much the landlord can say, but hang it externally and there generally is.

I should also note here, I do not agree with the restriction, I think it is a STUPID one that no tenant should take for one minute longer than they have to, I feel the same way about restrictions on curtains in the windows, what kind of flowers you plant in your yard, and all similar restrictions placed either by HOA's, Condo Associations, or Landlords. However my disagreement with the policy does not mean I believe that government needs to be butting into a private contract negotiation or telling the landlord what he must and must not allow on his property.

[magdalene74.livejournal.com]

i dont think the government should get into it but personally i think that anyone who is offended by a display of the american flag IN america needs to seriously consider whether or not they are happy here.. maybe they should move. maybe the french flag would be more pleasing to their eyes.

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

On this we are in agreement

[dwer.livejournal.com]

oh, please. What utter bullshit. And of course, I'm sure you think that if an american wants to fly an american flag in france, that should be ok, right?

Freedom of speech means ALL political speech, not just the speech you agree with. I believe the renter has a right to display any flag they choose, and I believe that the landlord has the right to not like it -- they simply don't have the right to keep it from happening.

[a-new-machine.livejournal.com]

"Quiet enjoyment" is one of those inherited old-school English legal phrases that actually means "the right not to get kicked out by someone with a better claim to the property's possessory right." The covenant of quiet enjoyment guarantees that your owner is really the owner, and not someone with an inferior claim to ownership to someone else. The covenant allows you to make a damages claim against your supposed landlord when someone else with a better title kicks you out. It's been expanded in some states (to incorporate the implied warranty of habitability) but those generally cover things like "the roof not falling in on you" and "not dying from mold exposure," not positive rights to do X with the property.

[tridus.livejournal.com]

Never lived in an area with low unoccupancy rates, have you?

I have. Quite often there literally IS only one complex with space. Or you get the situation where I'm living now, with thousands of units in the city, owned by two companies.

This is not a free market.

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I was unaware that the constitution (or any other source for that matter) guaranteed you the right to live in that community under the terms of your choosing.

If you don't like the rules MOVE.

What, next you're going to say you have a right to live there rent free because the rental company has no right to charge you to use their property.

[tridus.livejournal.com]

Sure, it's not like I have a job I'd like to keep in this area or anything.

I'm amazed you "free market solves everything" people have re-emerged so quickly after the free market run amok completely blew up and took the rest of the economy down with it last year.

[rasilio.livejournal.com]

Um yeah, if you think the world has seen anything approaching a free market in the last 40 years you need to go back to school and study what the term actually means.

Blaming the housing collapse on "the free market" is about as accurate as blaming professional baseball players for the failure of the American Educational system.