Majority of Laramie rentals still unregistered
Majority of Laramie rentals still unregistered
The City Rental Housing Code went into full force last year, but a majority of landlords are not in compliance. Some specific landlords remain unregistered despite direct reminders.
A majority of rental units across the city remain unregistered a year after the City Rental Housing Code first required it. In other words, fewer than half of all Laramie landlords are complying with the law.
In the Rental Housing Code’s first year, roughly 3,550 units have been registered — a far cry from the city’s estimated 8,000-9,000 rentals, and only a slight increase over the 3,400 units that were registered six months ago.
City officials were hoping for a surge in registrations when University of Wyoming students returned for the fall semester and moved into new apartments or rental houses, some of which would undoubtedly be unregistered and get reported.
But that surge never materialized. Instead, registrations plateaued.
There were 1,058 licenses issued in the Rental Housing Code’s first six months, but the city issued just 89 new licenses between then and now.
“Overall, the landlord community has been receptive to working with the city and to getting licensed,” City Manager Janine Jordan said. “There is clearly a big group of rental units that are not licensed and registered. And so we just keep chipping away at it, keep putting out press releases and public information, and encouraging the folks who own these properties to get licensed and registered with the city.”
But Jordan said it will take time to reach full or nearly full compliance.
“When the council adopted the ordinance, I think everybody understood — and I certainly tried to be clear when we talked about how effective this ordinance would be — that it would take a number of years to implement this ordinance fully and get to 80, 90, 100 percent compliance across all rental units in the community,” Jordan said.
The Laramie City Council is slated to evaluate the Rental Housing Code’s effectiveness this year. When they do, they’ll have the opportunity to make changes.
“We’ve not gone so far as to take any enforcement to court on this — but certainly the penalty for noncompliance could be higher,” Jordan said. “And maybe that’s something the city council would explore at some point in the future, if they think that the rate at which our rental units are coming online and being registered is too slow.”
Rental regulations, then and now
The push for “rental regulations” goes back to at least 2019, when organized landlord opposition crushed a city proposal to discuss the concept.
At the time, landlords argued rental regulations would interfere with their rights as property owners, and that if renting in Laramie were so bad as to necessitate rental regulations, the council and the community would be hearing more horror stories.
In the following years, those horror stories came to light, detailing unsanitary living conditions, shady business practices, and close personal and business connections between one notorious local landlord and a councilor who helped kill rental regulations in 2019.
The Rental Housing Code was given a first reading in late 2021 and — after a fierce fight — became law in early 2022. After a 12-month ramp up, the code went into full force in early 2023, a year ago this month.
There are three main components of the Rental Housing Code:
Habitability standards. The code outlines basic health and safety standards for rental units within city limits. It requires, for example, that a unit be structurally sound, that its major plumbing, heating and electrical work be completed by licensed professionals, and that it be free of pests and mold.
Required registration. The code also requires landlords to register each unit they rent, paying a nominal fee and attesting that their property meets the new health and safety standards.
Enforcement by complaint. The code is enforced reactively rather than preemptively. When they register, landlords attest to the habitability of their rental, but no inspection occurs. Instead, the code is enforced via a complaint system and has to begin with action from the tenant. If a tenant notices their rental is in violation of the new code, they must ask their landlord in writing to fix the problem and give their landlord 10 days to do so. If no remedy occurs, the tenant can then file an official complaint with the city; the city will then conduct an inspection and could order a fix.
Health and safety complaints
In its first year, the code has empowered eight official complaints. They run the gamut of code violations from the presence of mold to leaking foundations to a cockroach infestation.
One complaint notes that “Plumbing systems (are) not in safe or sanitary condition, windows and doors are not weatherproofed, exterior windows are not equipped with locks, unit is not pest free.”
Another notes the tenant has been dealing with “Poor condition of floor leading to multiple injuries,” adding there has been “No follow up from agent after months of interaction.”
As Jordan noted, none of these complaints have advanced to the court level. That is, however, an option available to the city if it does not see results after ordering fixes. (A 2022 lawsuit launched by landlords seeking to kill the code argued that it wasn’t clear whether this court enforcement was civil or criminal. Albany County District Court agreed that the city’s intentions could be clearer. So the Laramie City Council added more specificity to the Rental Housing Code. If the city brings action against you for failing to comply with the code, it’s a criminal matter.)
But Assistant City Manager Todd Feezer said property owners have been generally responsive when the city comes knocking.
“Overall, I think the response has been fine — you know, not a lot of gnashing of teeth or (wringing) of hands,” he said. “At least from my standpoint it’s been alright.”
Bossarei and Lemus properties still unregistered despite direct reminders
Large property management companies were quick to register their units and most were not, at any point, out of compliance with the registration portion of the code. Real Estate 1 registered the hundreds of properties it manages. Laramie Property Management Group registered its dozens.
But City Manager Jordan said there’s significant turnover of smaller scale landlords. With old property owners moving out and new property owners moving in, there will always be a need to educate new landlords on the city’s requirements.
Jordan said that explains some portion of the unregistered properties now.
“It seems like not everybody is aware of this requirement,” she said.
But others — even those who have been specifically and individually informed about the City Rental Housing Code — have left all or some of their properties unregistered.
Take, for example, Maximus Bossarei. Bossarei owns or co-owns more than a dozen properties across town, several of which have multiple apartments.
One of his tenants lodged an official complaint through the city — the complaint quoted above that listed unsafe and unsanitary plumbing systems among other issues. According to the city, those specific issues were resolved or are being resolved.
Sending Bossarei through the complaint process put him in direct contact with the city manager’s office, which reminded him that he needed to register his properties.
And he did register the specific property named in the official tenant complaint. But his other properties remain largely unregistered to this day.
Bossarei owns or co-owns 14 properties in Albany County, according to county property records. Most of these properties are rentals within city limits. Many of them have multiple units.
The two properties he co-owns are registered by their other owners. But when it comes to the properties he owns solely in his own name, he has registered just one — the property that inspired the official complaint.
Bossarei is not the only landlord who should know better. Another complaint lodged in the housing code’s first year involved a property owned by Arsenio Lemus.
Residents at 520 South Pierce Street complained of a “cockroach infestation that has largely been neglected by the owners,” adding “a bedroom may be out of city code because there is only one window in the room.”
The fact that a complaint has been lodged means the city has been in contact with the owner directly — and the owner has been reminded of the requirement to register.
Despite this, Lemus’ properties remain unregistered. There are eight properties in Albany County owned by “Arsenio Lemus Holdings, LLC” and none of them are registered with the city — not even 520 South Pierce.
This means Lemus could soon hold the distinction of being the first Laramie landlord brought to court by the city for noncompliance.
“I’ve sent him multiple notices to register,” Feezer said. “Now we’re probably down to the point where I’ve been trying to get with the city attorney’s office to schedule how to move forward.”