An ordinance scheduled for introduction Tuesday would establish health and safety standards for rental units and provide for enforcement of those standards through a registration and complaint system.
Since this article was published, I have attempted to speak to several members of City Council regarding the ordinance - which was sprung upon owners of Laramie rental properties with no warning or opportunity for input as it was being drafted. And now that it's been introduced, members of Council have been difficult to reach to discuss it - even when comments concern obvious flaws and illegalities in it. For example, Mayor Paul Weaver is not returning phone calls or responding to e-mails. And when we attempted to contact Brian Harrington, he responded, tersely, "I intend to support this ordinance," and refused even a brief phone call to discuss it. It appears that "the fix is in," and that no input from professionals who actually understand the logistics of providing rental housing is welcome.
This is a terrible shame. My family and I got into the business of rental housing due to our own poor experiences with it, and bend over backward to ensure that our units are safe, clean, and fully functional. Our lease actually INSISTS that tenants contact us immediately - 24x7x365 - at the first sign of any problem. And we respond immediately, often at considerable expense and inconvenience to ourselves. We care, and it's disappointing to find ourselves demonized - and our ability to provide reasonably priced rental housing threatened - with little opportunity even to discuss with several members of Council what WOULD work to deal with bad landlords or to encourage good ones. We take pride in our work, despite attacks from people such as the anonymous troll who is attacking us in the thread below, and are pleased to say that we not only have tenants who have willingly stayed with us for a decade or more but have had tenants who left Laramie, came back, and immediately checked with us to see if we had units available for them! It's a shame that the haters and trolls are so prevalent, and we urge the public to speak out about the bad points of this proposed Draconian regulation. These include the illegal taxes (in Wyoming, municipalities do not have the power to directly impose property taxes) that will require property owners to raise rents; the requirement, ruled unconstitutional in 8 states, for mandatory inspections; the requirement to use licensed contractors for repairs (the text of the ordinance, contrary to statements by some members of City staff, allows no exceptions); and the illegal attempt to override the very good and thorough resolution process instituted by state law in the event of a dispute over the habitablity of a unit. Want good rental housing? Don't discourage us good guys. Some of my co-owners have read this ordinance and are already seriously considering forcing me to cash out their investments; they've been burned by excessive regulation before. If we do, it's doubtful that the buyers will take the care we do to keep our units liveable, attractive, and safe. And that's the last comment I'm going to post here. I'm sure the trolls will continue to post outright lies and slander.... But as you can see, they won't even own up to their own disinformation. We stand behind what we say, because - again - we care.
This would be a disaster. It's contrary to state landlord/tenant law and violates both the state and the Federal constitutions. The ordinance doesn't take into account the fact that most mold problems are caused by tenants, who fail to vent moisture and bring mold spores with them on their belongings (not to mention bedbugs). The ordinance would also force rental property owners to raise rents to cover the additional expenses of registration, handling bogus complaints, and hiring licensed contractors to do minor work that could be performed by a handyman or by the owner. (This last provision was doubtless lobbied for by Laramie's few licensed contractors, who are often unavailable and take their sweet time to show up.) So much for affordable housing! And good landlords will exit the business, leaving only the bad ones. This ordinance no more deserves consideration than the prior one, which was nowhere near as Draconian... and was voted down.
Since this article was published, I have attempted to speak to several members of City Council regarding the ordinance - which was sprung upon owners of Laramie rental properties with no warning or opportunity for input as it was being drafted. And now that it's been introduced, members of Council have been difficult to reach to discuss it - even when comments concern obvious flaws and illegalities in it. For example, Mayor Paul Weaver is not returning phone calls or responding to e-mails. And when we attempted to contact Brian Harrington, he responded, tersely, "I intend to support this ordinance," and refused even a brief phone call to discuss it. It appears that "the fix is in," and that no input from professionals who actually understand the logistics of providing rental housing is welcome.
This is a terrible shame. My family and I got into the business of rental housing due to our own poor experiences with it, and bend over backward to ensure that our units are safe, clean, and fully functional. Our lease actually INSISTS that tenants contact us immediately - 24x7x365 - at the first sign of any problem. And we respond immediately, often at considerable expense and inconvenience to ourselves. We care, and it's disappointing to find ourselves demonized - and our ability to provide reasonably priced rental housing threatened - with little opportunity even to discuss with several members of Council what WOULD work to deal with bad landlords or to encourage good ones. We take pride in our work, despite attacks from people such as the anonymous troll who is attacking us in the thread below, and are pleased to say that we not only have tenants who have willingly stayed with us for a decade or more but have had tenants who left Laramie, came back, and immediately checked with us to see if we had units available for them! It's a shame that the haters and trolls are so prevalent, and we urge the public to speak out about the bad points of this proposed Draconian regulation. These include the illegal taxes (in Wyoming, municipalities do not have the power to directly impose property taxes) that will require property owners to raise rents; the requirement, ruled unconstitutional in 8 states, for mandatory inspections; the requirement to use licensed contractors for repairs (the text of the ordinance, contrary to statements by some members of City staff, allows no exceptions); and the illegal attempt to override the very good and thorough resolution process instituted by state law in the event of a dispute over the habitablity of a unit. Want good rental housing? Don't discourage us good guys. Some of my co-owners have read this ordinance and are already seriously considering forcing me to cash out their investments; they've been burned by excessive regulation before. If we do, it's doubtful that the buyers will take the care we do to keep our units liveable, attractive, and safe. And that's the last comment I'm going to post here. I'm sure the trolls will continue to post outright lies and slander.... But as you can see, they won't even own up to their own disinformation. We stand behind what we say, because - again - we care.
This would be a disaster. It's contrary to state landlord/tenant law and violates both the state and the Federal constitutions. The ordinance doesn't take into account the fact that most mold problems are caused by tenants, who fail to vent moisture and bring mold spores with them on their belongings (not to mention bedbugs). The ordinance would also force rental property owners to raise rents to cover the additional expenses of registration, handling bogus complaints, and hiring licensed contractors to do minor work that could be performed by a handyman or by the owner. (This last provision was doubtless lobbied for by Laramie's few licensed contractors, who are often unavailable and take their sweet time to show up.) So much for affordable housing! And good landlords will exit the business, leaving only the bad ones. This ordinance no more deserves consideration than the prior one, which was nowhere near as Draconian... and was voted down.