What's Happening

News from Cabell Enterprises

• New law coming that will affect Oregon landlords
• Thinking of prohibiting smoking in your rentals?
• Upcoming Educational Opportunities
• For park owners and residents
• 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

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

Several bills passed by the legislature will affect Oregon landlords. The major ones are the Landlord Tenant Coalition bill, SB 561, the Manufactured Housing Landlord Tenant Coalition bill, HB 2735 (which was so changed by the legislature that the coalition ended up opposing the bill; it passed anyway). Other bills include two dealing with towing, SB 116 and SB 431, one with discrimination, SB 2, and another with condo conversions, HB 3186. Here is a synopsis of what those bills will do, as I see it.

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.
 

For park owners and residents

Park closures are a hot political topic and the manufactured housing landlord tenant coalition spent over a year working on a compromise. That compromise failed in the legislature, which passed HB 2735. The compromise had called for (1) a tax freeze on the property for five years (which the legislature deleted from the bill), (2) a refundable $10,000 tax credit for displaced residents (the legislature reduced it to $5,000), and pre-emption of local ordinances (the legislature left in place the four current local ordinances and created a 90-day window for other jurisdictions to pass their own ordinances if they want. Our most recent synopsis of bills affecting landlords contains a summary of what’s in HB 2735.

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).

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.

   

Upcoming Educational Opportunities

Here are upcoming trainings with Norton Cabell for the fall. The Landlord Tenant Law Update workshop is an introduction to landlord tenant law for those who aren’t familiar with it, a refresher of for those who are, and an introduction to how the law was changed by the last legislature. Significant changes involve domestic violence and tenant repairs. The Manufactured Housing Park Law complies with the education requirements for park managers and covers that special segment of law dealing with parks.

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).