37 Comments

Thanks for the excellent coverage. It will be interesting to see if the biggest voices are the biggest violators... Proud of the council for their unanimous rejection of the proposed complaint filing fee & really PROUD to be a subscriber.

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The biggest voices haven't spoken yet. I'm small potatoes. A big lawsuit challenging the illegal ordinance is brewing.

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Brett, you angry muppet, it amazes me that you with 0 legal expertise think this ordinance illegal. Requiring landlords to upkeep their property and charging a small fee to handle the clerical costs is in no way illegal but keep making like a Karen and threatening to talk to the manager (judge). I'm gonna laugh so hard when this "big lawsuit" is thrown out of court and we all get to watch the shady landlords get publicly dragged AGAIN.

Amazing that you assumed she was talking about you though when she vaguely referenced "biggest voices" and implied you might be a violator of these pretty basic requirements.

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Looks like you're trying to be a "Karen" yourself. Too bad; since you're too cowardly to put your name to your nonsense, no one will take you seriously. In the meantime, the court challenge will be filed shortly, and the ordinance - which makes as much sense as your rants - will be nullified. Have a great day!

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Logic and reason would seem confusing to a muppet. And you're pretty close, my name does have some of those letters in it. ;)

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Heh. I love The Muppets. They make far more sense than you do!

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Forgive the ignorance, but many Laramie ordinances and services, to my understanding, extend to 1/2 mile outside city limits. Do we know if this would fall under the so-called "donut" arrangement or no?

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Nope. The Laramie ordinance isn't legal even WITHIN the city limits. Fortunately, if you have a legitimate gripe, there are good remedies under state law.

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Jan 20, 2022·edited Jan 20, 2022

I didn't ask for your bloviation, Brett. And I (and others) have already addressed the issues with you (and others) hiding behind the "remedies under state law".

Go away.

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You're the one who's bloviating, Matt. If you won't take advantage of the LEGAL remedies that are available to you, then it's you who have the problem.

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Jesus christ man; your lack of self-awareness is astounding....not to mention your ability to literally ignore anything anyone ever says to you while you live in your thick freaking bubble.

And my name is Matthew, as I've told you repeatedly over the years and you can clearly see.

Don't you ever get tired of being the most hated dude in Laramie? At a certain point it's not "everyone else"; it's you. You're a literal meme in Laramie. Lmao.

Regardless, again, I asked a simple question and you chose to take the opportunity to continue with one of your rants. Literally no one asked you about anything else, Brett. Go away.

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Jan 20, 2022·edited Jan 20, 2022

Hah. You're projecting. I'm not only well liked but providing important services to the community. And I'm certainly not going to be bullied or intimidated into going anywhere. Don't like that? Too bad. Go away yourself if you can't handle it when someone puts the lie to your nonsense.

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*Brett quickly searching "Bloviation" on dictionary.com: "Oh, I can use this is a sentence and be big smart boy in the internet comments"

LOL, don't you have better things to do with time than troll reporters?

Side note- your services are not well-liked and from what I hear, neither are you.

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Landlords complaining that $20 is too much to pay to register their rentals brining in thousands in revenue yearly.

Also landlords: "A fEE sHould bE reQUired for tHE BroKE TENants tho."

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Jan 23, 2022·edited Jan 23, 2022

You're out of touch. Many rentals in Laramie - in fact, the majority, I'll wager - have been losing money during the pandemic. The best have barely been scraping by.

Council seems bound and determined to kick us when we're down - one reason why they're encouraging frivolous, malicious, and retaliatory bogus complaints. And they're being urged on by the bureaucrats who'd LOVE to exert dictatorial power over more than half of Laramie's housing. They want be tax that housing, and those living in it, to the tune of a quarter of a million dollars per year... plus raising other expenses. While at the same time bloating the city bureaucracy, which is already out of control.

I don't want to have to raise rents, nor do I want to forego upgrades or delay repairs and improvements. I'm 100% within my rights to advocate for my business and for my customers, and will continue to do so despite anonymous trolls who won't put their names to their postings.

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Let me spell this out for you.

NO tenant wants to start a fight with the person who controls their shelter (which probably about half their paycheck goes to). It is dumb to think that tenants are going to bully their landlords. It is just dumb, Brett.

Also you don't have to raise rents if your rentals meet these regulations which in case anyone forgot include, no mold, no pests, basic upkeep, FIRE ESCAPES, etc.

You greedy turkey boy, if you honestly are more concerned with making a profit than providing safe and sanitary shelter I hope these regulations put you out of business completely.

Your PROFIT is not more important that A HUMAN LIFE.

To that point, you know how many other businesses lost money during this pandemic? You want the city to bail out every car dealership, every gym, every event venue too? We don't protect landlords above other businesses because they don't deserve special protection. As a matter of fact because they control a space where people sleep, eat and generally live they should be scrutinized with a more thorough set of regulations.

In short, we can all see through your lawsuit threats, your slander of journalists and your ridiculous ceaseless whining about how no one is patting you on the back for being a "good landlord" when 90% of your comments on this page suggest that you are in fact a BAD landlord.

"I don't want to raise rents..." but if you require me to bring my rentals up to a livable standards than I'm going to have to invest a lot of money into them. That's not something a nice landlord would say. That's not something that someone who cares about people would say.

No one cares about your fragile feelings. No one cares that you are scared for your business. Poops like you are why regulations are needed so do us a favor and shut up. You know what you could be doing with this time? The repairs and upkeep on your rental properties that you are so clearly dodging, hoping your alleged lawsuit will save you from providing safe and sanitary housing.

I might be anonymous, a point that seems to frustrate you greatly (perhaps because you can't defame my character or make personal attacks to distract from the point) but I am not the troll here, Laurence.

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Jan 19, 2022·edited Jan 19, 2022

As usual, Jeff seeks to trivialize the harmful effects of this onerous, illegal bureaucratic regime upon the renters of Laramie. The City Council just voted to try to extract a QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR from Laramie's tenants, for the purpose of creating a bureaucracy that will cause rents to go up 10-15% (the impacts are far higher than just the amount of the tax), reduce housing availability, slow and deter repairs and improvements, and drive away business development and economic diversification. It also voted to make it free for bad tenants to file retaliatory nuisance complaints against landlords, which they will threaten to do when their rent is late, they damage their apartments, or they themselves cause a problem (such as by bringing in and farming mold in units that started out free of it). Were the ordinance not certain to be overturned, the city would quickly be swamped with these bogus complaints. Fortunately, the courts won't tolerate the multiple violations of state law inherent in the illegal tax and the unconstitutional ordinance, and hopefully will issue an immediate injunction.

There are ways to deal with the very few problem landlords in Laramie. But flouting the rule of law, or burdening tenants with illegal taxes and higher rents, is surely not among them.

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The idea that tenants will “bring in and farm mold” in their own apartment is absolutely unhinged and you should really think about how out of touch that is

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Jan 20, 2022·edited Jan 20, 2022

You obviously have no experience in rental management. Last year, we even had one tenant disable the bathroom ventilation fan - a violation of his lease - because he wanted to steam up the bathroom during overly long showers. The mold he brought in on the items he kept in the shower began to grow, and we had to do extensive mitigation.

The hatred we're seeing in this forum, from trolls like you, demonstrates that you utterly fail to appreciate the hard work we put into this often heartbreaking business. Or maybe you're simply selfish and want to abuse the housing you rent with impunity.

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This is not a big problem, guy. Like, your properties must pull in many, many thousands of dollars per year - get your properties fixed by professionals, make sure all of them are accounted by the city, and let tenants make complaints to the city. These are all super common-sense protections, and people like Max Bossenari for example have successfully evaded the current protections. More protections for tenants is good, more regulations for landlords is good; to say otherwise is to blindly ignore the housing crisis in Laramie which, if you read the article, has made nationwide news.

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Jan 21, 2022·edited Jan 21, 2022

Intrusive, expensive, overbearing regulation is not good. Want your rent to go way up? And have repairs take weeks or months? Just require Laramie's slow, expensive contractors to make every repair. What's more, when they do send someone, it's often an apprentice who knows less than the landlord or handyman. We've had licensed contractors do shoddy work for us that we've had to redo ourselves. We care about our properties and do the job right the first time.

As for "Max:" As I understand it, tenants' problems with him largely had to do with retention of deposits. This is not addressed (and cannot be addressed) in any way by a city ordinance; it is governed by state law and has to go through the civil court system. The city has a criminal court but not a civil court.

Finally, there's no housing crisis in Laramie. We have a surplus of rentals and many vacancies. It's a tenants' market.

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Jan 23, 2022Liked by Jeff Victor

"Finally, there's no housing crisis in Laramie. It's a tenants' market."

Lmfao, there it is...the most out-of-touch thing I've read all day.

Sure, there's more options if you are literally a single college student with no long-term commitments and zero baggage or needs.

For the rest of of the human population in Laramie, there is *very* much a housing crisis, as prices have skyrocketed, availability is absolutely non-existent, and quality has plummetted.

If you've personally got a surplus and vacancies, you might want to reexamine why no one wants to rent from you.

It's amazing to me how stubborn you are in your absolute refusal to recognize ANY problems with your industry, your peers, yourself, or Laramie itself WHATSOEVER....no matter how many people tell you otherwise. You take everything so *incredibly* personally that you're unwilling to admit that maybe....just maybe...other people have different experiences than you.

You refuse to admit that slumlords exist in Laramie at all, let alone on a noticeable scale. You refuse to admit that it's not easy for the average working or poor person to take advantage of what little "protection" state law provides. You REFUSE to admit that anyone that's not a single college student actually has a difficult time finding a decent place to live here.

You literally live in an alternate freaking reality from the rest of this community, and every word that comes out of your mouth is spoken from a place of extreme privilege...and then you have the nerve to criticize "everyone else" as if "everyone else" but you is the issue.

And then you wonder why everyone freaking hates you.

Willfull ignorance and narcissism at it's finest.

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Jan 23, 2022·edited Jan 23, 2022

There are a few bad landlords in Laramie, but many more bad tenants. Perhaps if you have so much trouble with rentals, it's because you're one of them. You certainly are abrasive and abusive, and it's clear that you DO have a lot of baggage.

There's a nationwide housing bubble for those who want to buy right now, but rentals in Laramie are very economical and there are a lot of vacancies. We have filled all of our vacancies, but that's because we have great units at affordable prices.

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Speaking of breaking leases, I've been told that getting an alternative internet service provider to LARIAT at your properties is considered in violation of the lease and grounds for eviction. Is this true?

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Jan 20, 2022·edited Jan 21, 2022

Wow - the hate and lies keep flowing. (No wonder you're posting under a pseudonym; you won't own up to what you write.) That's a lie; LARIAT, the Internet provider, and the rental properties I co-own are two completely separate businesses. Most of our rentals are already served by multiple providers. Of course, if a tenant wants to start stringing wires or putting holes in walls, or bring someone in who does this, they'll need permission.

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Just needed your comment for the record

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Brett's real name is LARRY. So it looks like he's got a pseudonym too. LOL

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