SB 5060 – Rental & Vacant Property Registry
Requiring the registration of rental and vacant housing units.
Status: DEAD
Summary
The Department of Commerce (Commerce) must create and maintain a website that tracks and discloses statewide rental and vacant housing unit inventory in real time as well as reported monthly rental rate data.
Rental property owners must register all rental and vacant housing units and report monthly rental rates with Commerce every two years. Rental housing units must be registered when the rental housing unit is made available or listed, or when a tenant occupies the unit. The registration fee for each initial rental or vacant housing unit is $70 plus a fee of $15 for each additional unit. Registration information must be kept current and any change in information contained in an initial or renewal registration application must be updated within 60 days.
Unless the unit is registered, owners of a rental housing unit may not end a tenancy or evict a tenant from the rental housing unit except for the following causes:
- when the tenant continues in possession after having received at least three days’ advance written notice to quit after they commit or permit waste or nuisance upon the premises;
- unlawful activity that affect the use and enjoyment of the premises; or
- other substantial or repeated and unreasonable interference with the use and enjoyment of the premises by the landlord or neighbors of the tenant.
Revenues generated from registration fees must be deposited in the rental property registration account and may be used only for programs that provide legal representation in eviction cases, distributions to local governments to assist in inspections of rental housing units, and administration.
Registration requirements do not apply to the following housing units:
- a housing unit used as a short-term rental that is the primary residence of the rental owner;
- a housing unit rented for less than one year because the property owner, who lives in the unit, takes a work-related leave of absence or assignment that temporarily transfers them to another location;
- a room for rent in an owner-occupied home;
- a housing unit in hotels, motels, inns, bed and breakfasts;
- a housing unit in an assisted living facility, adult family home, or soldiers and veteran home that is licensed or required to be licensed;
- a housing unit in any state licensed hospital, hospice, community care facility, intermediate care facility, or nursing home;
- a housing unit in any convent, monastery, or other facility occupied exclusively by members of a religious order or congregation;
- emergency or temporary shelter or transitional housing accommodations;
- a housing unit owned, operated, or managed by a major educational or medical institution or by a third party for the institution;
- and a housing unit owned, operated, or managed by a major educational or medical institution.
Property owners with a rental housing unit within a city with a population of at least 700,000 that administers a rental property registration program, or within a city that requires residential landlords to obtain a business license, are not subject to the registration requirements. The local jurisdiction or agency that administers a city’s rental property registration program or landlord licensing program must report program data to Commerce monthly.
Talking Points
- Cities, Counties and the State already imposes complicated administrative and legislative burden on housing providers. Increasing reporting and certification requirements will push more small housing providers struggling to keep up out of the market.
- Renting a unit is a private contract between two agreeing parties. Requiring the details of that contract to be disclosed to a third party is an overreach of governmental power.
- According to the Washington Center for Real Estate Research, regulation that compels is extremely likely to result in unreliable or inaccurate data due to the mandatory nature of the bill.
- Housing providers have already been willingly participating in studies into the housing market. You can see as much with the numerous studies and reports on the housing market. Many examples of which can be found here.
- The city should focus on incentivizing participation by partnering with research and trade organizations rather than pass a blanket mandate that will push housing even further out of reach.
- Regulation that imposes fees and administrative cost for housing providers creates additional operating cost.
- Housing authorities are landlords and should not be exempt from providing data.
- This bill creates a revenue stream for eviction defense paid by one industry – housing providers
- This bill is an unproven solution to maintaining or creating more housing.