City Council advanced an ordinance calling for health and safety standards and establishing a complaint system. The ordinance was met with some landlord opposition, but also a wave of support.
No landlord who has any experience dealing with the bureaucracy of the City of Laramie is "divided" on this issue; only the ones who have never done so, or are naive, believe that it is appropriate for the city to register and perform mandatory inspections of every rental. Those of us who have dealt with the city have also experienced "reguatory creep." While the City Manager claims that the city will leave landlords alone about "unpermitted" repairs, the actual text of the proposed ordinance says nothing about whether they are permitted or unpermitted. It simply says "repairs," and thus includes ALL repairs. As any judge or lawyer will tell you, laws mean what they say, not what some bureaucrat says in remarks that won't even be included in the meeting minutes. If the ordinance is passed without modification, the city will have the ability to require EVERY repair or improvement relating to plumbing, heating, or electricity, no matter how minor, to be done by an expensive, "licensed contractor," of which there are relatively few in the city. Repairs and improvements will be unreasonably delayed and costly. The ordinance will thus hurt tenants as much as landlords, especially those who now create jobs by employing handymen. This is just one of the bad things about the ordinance; there are many more provisions which are harmful and/or illegal.
No landlord who has any experience dealing with the bureaucracy of the City of Laramie is "divided" on this issue; only the ones who have never done so, or are naive, believe that it is appropriate for the city to register and perform mandatory inspections of every rental. Those of us who have dealt with the city have also experienced "reguatory creep." While the City Manager claims that the city will leave landlords alone about "unpermitted" repairs, the actual text of the proposed ordinance says nothing about whether they are permitted or unpermitted. It simply says "repairs," and thus includes ALL repairs. As any judge or lawyer will tell you, laws mean what they say, not what some bureaucrat says in remarks that won't even be included in the meeting minutes. If the ordinance is passed without modification, the city will have the ability to require EVERY repair or improvement relating to plumbing, heating, or electricity, no matter how minor, to be done by an expensive, "licensed contractor," of which there are relatively few in the city. Repairs and improvements will be unreasonably delayed and costly. The ordinance will thus hurt tenants as much as landlords, especially those who now create jobs by employing handymen. This is just one of the bad things about the ordinance; there are many more provisions which are harmful and/or illegal.