On Monday night, Council considered updates to the City’s residential rental housing regulations. The original ordinance has been divided into two separate ordinances to garner broader Council support.
Ordinance C-36330, which passed unanimously:
- Codifies regulations supporting housing security to reduce homelessness;
- Establishes standards and enforcement mechanisms as they relate to rental housing;
- Establishes a residential rental registry and imposes a $15 per unit per year fee;
- Clarifies that current Washington State Law and the Spokane Municipal Code require landlords to have a business license for a $127 annual fee and make the licensing requirements more lenient for landlords who are simply renting out a room (or two) in the house they live in or are renting out an unattached accessory dwelling unit on their primary residential property since they would no longer be required to obtain a business license; and
- Ensures these additional resources collected through fees go directly into a Code Enforcement Fund. In other words, the business license fees paid by landlords will go directly into a fund that promotes the overall safety and habitability of rental housing.
- Allows for landlords offering below market cost rentals to low-income tenants to seek a waiver of the $15 annual fee by registering with the City’s affordable rental housing incentive program that CHHS will develop;
- Waives registration fees for non-profits;
- Allows the Community, Housing and Human Services department to coordinate with the Office of Civil Rights, Equity, and Inclusion to establish a public-facing website, the digital link of which will be provided by landlords to their tenants, that identifies a variety of online resources for landlords and tenants, including tenant rights and responsibilities, a change of address form, and a voter registration form.
Ordinance C-36366, which passed 5-2:
- Establishes portable background and credit checks, tenant relocation and legal services, and landlord mitigation programs;
- Requires landlords or property managers to self-inspect the unit(s) before renting them out and, by engaging in a lease, certify that they have performed the inspections and that their property complies with all the building codes, habitability requirements, and other relevant codes preexisting the City and State codes;
- Increases code enforcement;
- Requires landlords or property managers to make all the necessary repairs to keep the unit in habitable condition as regulated by the City and State codes;
- Requires landlords or property managers to maintain all move-in and move-out inspection records for at least three years;
- Requires landlords, owners, or property managers to disclose the following to tenants:
- Information about whether the unit has had a history of mold, any remediation, and whether the landlord has been informed by past tenants of any health concerns related to mold;
- Any known history of methamphetamine manufacturing on the premises;
- Information about whether the property is actively for sale and in the event that the property is sold, they must provide all contact information for the new owner to tenants;
- Creates a portable background and credit check program to ensure landlords get the data they need to make an informed decision about a prospective tenant, while ensuring that prospective tenants are not unduly burdened by the need to pay multiple background and credit check fees;
- Ensures that additional resources collected through fees go directly into a Residential Rental Property Mitigation Fund, and a Legal Service and Relocation Fund. In other words, the business license fees paid by landlords will go directly into funds that support landlord-tenant relations and promote the overall safety and habitability of rental housing;
- Creates a private right of action for specified violations of the residential rental code; and
- Creates a process for tenants to terminate a rental agreement if a landlord fails to comply with the ordinance requirements.
Councilmember Jonathan Bingle said it’s important to enforce code against bad landlords, and he expressed openness for a version of a rental registry that all parties can agree on, but he said this ordinance goes too far, and would make landlords consider removing their properties from the market.
“The desire to be landlords has gone away,” Bingle said. “I know friends who have converted out of rental units into Airbnbs. If we continue to make it more difficult to be a landlord, unnecessary regulations, we’re going to see a significant drop in available units.”
Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward issued the following statement following the decision:
“Housing stability is a complicated challenge that deserves the time needed to work through important details without the pressure of a deadline. This issue has been met with a lot of passion since it was introduced right before the holidays. Deferring action on the ordinance unfortunately wasn’t enough as Council made changes to the ordinance right up until acting on it.
My request of the City Council for a narrowed, simplified approach was about finding the right balance of protections that maintains rental units and encourages new ones while protecting tenants from bad landlords. Adding a registry, licensing, and inspections largely accomplished that goal.
However, adding background checks and encouraging City-backed private legal action by tenants establishes a regulatory environment that limits our ability to maintain and grow a robust housing supply. While I appreciate that some give and take occurred, the risk is still very real that the new regulations imposed on landlords will harm the very tenants it is intended to help.”
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/feb/28/slate-of-controversial-renter-protections-passed-b/