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.
Landlords in the city from which this ordinance was - unthinkingly - copied manage to make it work by charging about DOUBLE the rents that are charged for similar units in Laramie. But does it help with complaints? Apparently not, because the database of complaints in that city shows that there are as many bad landlords as here. For example, at https://www.rentalprotectionagency.com/case-23-3309-The-Realty-Connection-Pat-Marsonette-Eugene-Oregon we see a complaint that says:
"My home was flooded with sewer water containing feces, urine, feminine hygiene products, toilet paper, and anything else one puts down a toilet. The maintenance person did not call a plumber two days before the flood when I called and told him that the sewer had backed up again. I had to clean up all the mess that day and the two times prior to the total flood which was in July 2013. I was harassed, yelled at, threatened, and demanded to move all of my belongings from the house as soon as possible but no later than November 1st or the sheriff would be summoned to physically remove me and my belongings. Almost all of this communication is in the form of a voice mail. My mother, uncle, and myself spent four days moving everything out of the house and cleaning the entire upstairs. Downstairs my mom cleaned the stove, refrigerator, windows, and cupboards. I did not attempt to clean the upstairs carpet because both my cats were soaked with sewer water before they could get up the stairs, I walked through the sewer water and up and down the stairs to retrieve some of my belongings, and clothing soaked with sewer water was thrown on the stair landing. With all those events the health department said the carpet would need to be replaced."
Do we want our housing to become unaffordable AND see no improvement? Then we don't want to adopt Eugene's badly flawed ordinance, which violates Wyoming state law in multiple ways and will deter and hinder repairs and improvements.
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.
Landlords in the city from which this ordinance was - unthinkingly - copied manage to make it work by charging about DOUBLE the rents that are charged for similar units in Laramie. But does it help with complaints? Apparently not, because the database of complaints in that city shows that there are as many bad landlords as here. For example, at https://www.rentalprotectionagency.com/case-23-3309-The-Realty-Connection-Pat-Marsonette-Eugene-Oregon we see a complaint that says:
"My home was flooded with sewer water containing feces, urine, feminine hygiene products, toilet paper, and anything else one puts down a toilet. The maintenance person did not call a plumber two days before the flood when I called and told him that the sewer had backed up again. I had to clean up all the mess that day and the two times prior to the total flood which was in July 2013. I was harassed, yelled at, threatened, and demanded to move all of my belongings from the house as soon as possible but no later than November 1st or the sheriff would be summoned to physically remove me and my belongings. Almost all of this communication is in the form of a voice mail. My mother, uncle, and myself spent four days moving everything out of the house and cleaning the entire upstairs. Downstairs my mom cleaned the stove, refrigerator, windows, and cupboards. I did not attempt to clean the upstairs carpet because both my cats were soaked with sewer water before they could get up the stairs, I walked through the sewer water and up and down the stairs to retrieve some of my belongings, and clothing soaked with sewer water was thrown on the stair landing. With all those events the health department said the carpet would need to be replaced."
Do we want our housing to become unaffordable AND see no improvement? Then we don't want to adopt Eugene's badly flawed ordinance, which violates Wyoming state law in multiple ways and will deter and hinder repairs and improvements.