Our state legislature has been in session for 4 weeks. Because the budget is the most serious item that must be dealt with, the legislators are trying to deal with non-budget items early in the session so there will be adequate time left to concentrate on the budget. Following is a brief review of bills that have been introduced and that appear to have some chance of success during this session or are of significant interest to the multi-family industry.
HB 1296 / SB 5495 THIRD PARTY INSPECTIONS. These bills would prevent a local government from requiring landlords to have their property inspected by a third party as a condition of obtaining a business license. The house version, HB 1296, has passed its first committee vote unanimously and is in the house rules committee. WMFHA supports these bills and we are working hard to get them through the legislative process.
HB 1298 / SB 5667 UTILITY LIENS. These bills would limit the ability of a local utility to collect unpaid utility bills that a tenant was responsible for but failed to pay. The house version passed its first committee vote and has been sent to the rules committee. WMFHA has been working to get these bills passed and we strongly support them.
HB 1856 / SB 5833 SEXUAL HARASSMENT BY LANDLORD. These bills would deal with the rare situation in which a landlord or landlord employee sexually assaults or sexually harasses a tenant. Joe Puckett has been engaged in meetings with tenant advocates for the past 2 months to help craft a compromise piece of legislation that landlords can accept.
HB 1733 / SB 5549 TERMINATION NOTICES. These bills would drastically change the termination notices that landlords are required to give to a month-to-month tenant. The bills would require a landlord to give a notice 30 days before the end of a month but 60 days if the tenancy has been in effect for more that 1 year. The bills do not require the tenant to give more than the currently allowed 20 day notice. WMFHA strongly opposes thisbill.
HB 1333 / 5561 CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTORS. These bills would require landlords to install carbon monoxide alarms in rental properties. WMFHA opposes both bills.
The following bills have been introduced but have either not yet been assigned to a committee or the committee has not yet set a date for a hearing.
HB 1766 / SB 5672 SOURCE OF INCOME. These bills would make source of income and Section 8 protected classes in the state and landlords would be required to accept Section 8 tenants if they met other screening requirements. The bills have been assigned to committees but no hearings have been set. WMFHA opposes the bills and we are working hard to make sure the bills do not get a hearing.
SB 5922 TENANT SCREENING AND EVICTIONS. This bill has just been introduced and would severely limit the information that screening companies could give to landlords about previously filed eviction actions involving the applicant. It would also allow an applicant to take a screening from one property and use it at other properties for the next 60 days. This is a bad bill and WMFHA will be working extremely hard to kill it.