What's Happening

News from Cabell Enterprises

• New law coming that will affect Oregon landlords
• Upcoming Educational Opportunities
• For park owners and residents
• Companion animals, assistance animals, and more. Still a moving target
• Thinking of prohibiting smoking in your rentals?
• Opinion from HUD expands definition of when a “reasonable accommodation” has been requested
• Tax credit projects cannot use Oregon’s “no cause” termination provisions
• Manipulative roommates? A recurring problem for landlords
• Calculating life expectancy of appliances and other housing components
• Be careful how you write your ads. HUD may be watching.

Cabell Enterprises can be your link to what’s going on
– and what’s new –
in the housing industry as it affects Oregon landlords.

New law coming that will affect Oregon landlords

The 2009 legislature is poised to adopt new law affecting landlords. The General Landlord Tenant Coalition is likely to propose a law that has four elements: restricting fees a landlord may charge; requiring a landlord who gives a no cause notice to make that notice at least 60 days if the tenancy is more than a year old; providing a mechanism for a landlord to sort through heirs when a tenant who lives alone dies; and creating a mechanism for a landlord and tenant to allow a guest to stay for a while without becoming a tenant. Here is a summary of the changes as we see it as of this date.

The Manufactured Housing Landlord Tenant Coalition is likely to propose a bill that tries to ease submetering requirement for parks, imposes a fee on parks for registering with the Department of Housing and Community Services and imposes penalties on parks that don’t register; and also deals with guests.

Other bills are in the works, involving smoking, habitability, and mandatory Section 8.

If you aren’t aware of the changes made by the 2007 legislature, here is a synopsis of bills affecting landlords.

Upcoming Educational Opportunities

Here are upcoming trainings with Norton Cabell for the Spring of 2009. The Landlording 101 is pretty basic, useful for those who are new to the business and a refresher for those who aren’t. Landlording 301 covers just a few topics (reasonable accommodation, occupancy standards, domestic violence, etc.), but in depth. The park training workshop enables park managers to comply with education requirements.

Remember, if you are a property management company, we offer specialized, in-house training for your property managers, on-site folks, and maintenance and other office employees. These employees require continuing education; you can send them all out to assorted training events (and never know the results), or train them in-house (and save money and know what they're getting).

For park owners and residents

Park closures continue to be a hot topic, but so far not much has been proposed for the current legislative session. Here is a summary of what passed last session.

Managers continue to be required to get some education. For availability of training, see the OHCS website (Norton Cabell is one of the authorized trainers; see Upcoming Educational Opportunities).

The current tax credit for residents who are forced to move because of a park closure continues to be available. Here is a FAQ on how it works (written by Peter Ferris).
 

Companion animals, assistance animals, and more. Still a moving target.

For landlords, who have to comply with the Fair Housing Act (FHA), the difference between a service animal, an assistance animal, a comfort animal, a companion animal, etc., doesn't matter because we have to accommodate them all. It's not so clear under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Here's an article from the New York Times that explains the difference and points out the difficulties faced by people with disabilities and those businesses that have to accommodate them.

Thinking of prohibiting smoking in your rentals?

A recent study prepared by Campbell DeLong Resources for the American Lung Association of Oregon outlines attitudes of renters in the Metro area to smoking. The results show that the vast majority of tenants (4 out of 5) would prefer to live in smoke-free housing. So it makes sense to consider making your apartments smoke-free. An article I wrote for the December 2007 issue of Metro Apartment Manager explores the fair housing implications of prohibiting smoking.

Both Oregon Rental Housing Association and Metro Multifamily Housing Association have developed smoke-free addendums and other tools for landlords who want to rent smoke-free housing. The Rental Housing Association of Greater Portland has put some of those on its web site.

Opinion from HUD expands definition of when a "reasonable accommodation" has been requested

To request a reasonable accommodation, a tenant who meets the legal definition of someone who is disabled needn't use those words. From a recent newsletter, here's a synopsis of a recent HUD/DOJ Joint Statement on the subject. And here's the actual text of the Joint Statement.

Tax credit projects cannot use Oregon's "no cause" termination provisions

Can a tax credit-financed property use no-cause terminations? A recent IRS ruling says, No. Take our word for it; or read the IRS ruling.

Manipulative roommates? A recurring problem for landlords

A recent Rental Forum column published in The Sunday Oregonian co-written by us addresses the question of dealing with "difficult/manipulative" "friends or roommates." Read it here.

Calculating life expectancy of appliances and other housing components

A recent study by the National Association of Home Builders and Bank of America lists the life expectancy of housing components and appliances. Who would have guessed that a microwave has a life of 9 years, an exhaust fan 10 years, and an electric water heater 11 years? If you have to calculate depreciation for appliances (and other building components) when settling with security deposits, this can be a useful tool for you. Of course, these are estimates and in some cases don’t accord with real life, at least in my experience. But they can be useful if you have to articulate the basis for your calculations.

Some other sources of estimates (and they will differ) are on web sites hosted by This Old House, The Samurai Appliance Repair Man, and Demesne.

Be careful how you write your ads. HUD may be watching.

Avoid getting into trouble with your advertising. While it may be legal to say "female roommate wanted," many newspapers won't publish it. Some are more conservative than what the HUD rules are. That's because HUD isn't always clear about what constitutes unlawful discrimination in advertising and because not everyone at HUD agrees all the time. The conservatism of the newspaper may work to your advantage, since it is always you, only sometimes then, who are responsible for the legality of the ad. HUD did publish a memorandum over a decade ago that can help you understand the nuances of what wording works and what doesn't.