Then "Comrade Kaprugina" gets to decide where you'll live.
Posted on 01/31/2020 6:30:57 PM PST by karpov
Affordable-housing shortages are an abiding challenge for cities around the nation. But often policies meant to alleviate the problem aggravate it instead. That’s certainly the case in Seattle, where the City Council imposed a pair of ordinances aimed at restricting property owners’ right to choose their tenants.
These misguided laws, recently upheld by the Washington Supreme Court, attempt to solve problems caused by the housing shortage by destroying property rights. Property owners in other cities should take note: Such reforms have a tendency to spread once they take root.
The two ordinances in question strip landlords of the right to decide who will occupy their property. Seattle’s “first in time” rule requires landlords to set rental criteria in advance and then rent to the first person who walks in the door with an adequate application. There are plenty of good reasons a landlord might prefer a different tenant, including socially beneficial ones such as a desire to help a struggling family.
The second law prohibits a landlord from inquiring about or considering an applicant’s criminal history—deemed an “unfair practice” that can subject the landlord to severe civil penalties. The federal government requires background checks for federally assisted housing, and for good reason: Criminal history bears directly on factors like reliability, creditworthiness and safety.
Both Seattle laws purport to reduce discrimination in housing and help beleaguered minorities, even though there’s no evidence that Seattle landlords engage in widespread discrimination. Taken together, these laws thrust landlords blindly into long-term lease relationships with renters they didn’t choose.
A small band of mom-and-pop landlords, represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, sued the city over both ordinances. Marilyn Yim owns a triplex in Seattle. She lives with her husband and children in one of the units and rents out the other two.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Landlords should start doing class-action lawsuits against the state for any losses incurred as a result of these idiotic laws.
Lots and lots of absentee Communist Chinese landlords in King County. Too bad the law can’t only pertain to them. They seem to avoid most laws American landlords must abide by.
Monterey, California, is now considering a vacancy tax on residential property that is unoccupied for any significant time during a calendar year. This likely would impact people’s second homes and vacation homes where they only occupy them for a few months per year during ideal times, but allow them to be unoccupied during other times. Progressive council members claim this adds to homelessness and should be taxed any month they go unoccupied.
Liberalism is a mental disease.
Why live and invest in that city?
SELL EVERYTHING
AND MOVE SOMEWHERE ELSE
The world is upside down. This is not freedom, this is tyranny.
They probably got the idea from Europeans.. It sounds like their mentality.
Do bureaucrats ever stop trying to come up with ways to make other peoples lives miserable?
This will only hurt the housing market and economy. People won’t rent extra rooms or units in their homes.
Well, this should help property values!
Go lower, that is.
Banks won’t like that.
Neither will good tenants who aren’t criminals and would like to avoid living around criminals.
I work for an European based company and the upper management lives for more red tape.
Vote for the Insane and you get Insane
Nothing like a free country. Wish we had still had one.
And no credit check or job affirmation - they don’t have to prove they can afford the rent; and rent control also is wanted by the socialist city council. So now only will rental apartments be shutdown along with businesses in Seattle.
MANY people have to rent rooms in their homes for financial reasons, many people get divorced wife keeps the home but can’t afford the payments herself OR visa/versa they no longer have the 2 incomes so they rent out rooms!!! I know many people in CA. in this situation, I have also found senior citizens rooming together because spouses pass away!! This is ridiculous!!!
That's because they can pass the costs on to their customers, while the red tape raises the barriers to entry for potential competitors.
There is some price at which the landlord doesn't care if his tenant is a criminal, but an increased price will discourage criminals more than others.
The other way it is going to work is that the advertised rental market is going to dry up in a hurry. Landlords will use word of mouth advertising and personal references to fill vacancies.
Elections have consequences!!! The Dems just keep pushing the envelope!!!
My home town has been commandeered by commies, socialists, and psychos. Yep.
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