As a sophomore moving off campus, Western Washington U. senior Maddie Ohrt rented from Bellingham’s Painless Property Management at its University Heights complex on the corner of Bill McDonald Parkway and 21st Street. During winter, she and her three roommates received a letter from their landlord asking them to turn down their heat because it was costing too much.
“It was January and February, [heat is] included in our rent, it’s part of our contract, and we’re going to use it,” Ohrt said. “That’s kind of ridiculous to request in January.”
Later, upon entering the ground-floor bedroom of Ohrt’s former roommate, Western alumna Katherine Collins, she found the screen broken and a knife resting on the windowsill. Despite requests for a new one, the damaged screen was never replaced. No one was harmed and nothing had been stolen, but Ohrt said she could understand why her roommate felt unsafe.
Problems like these with her property management company dissuaded her from renting with it again.
“They just didn’t seem to care all that much about the students,” she said.
Ohrt said that between the heat, the broken screen and an unclear cleaning fee deducted from her deposit, she would hesitate before recommending the company to other students.
Ohrt’s apartment complex, University Heights, is located close to campus, a convenience that allows landlords to continually raise the rent, she said.
“It’s just difficult to find someplace to live and then have [the rent] increase,” she said. “It discouraged me from signing another lease. [Rent is] going up $60. It’s not worth it.”
State authorizes inspection programs
A state law passed in March regarding licensing and inspection policies for residential rental properties will take effect June 10. Senate Bill 6459 provides city governments the right to require a certificate of inspection as a condition of property management companies receiving a license as a business.
The House Bill Report summarized public testimony by representatives of housing organizations, among others, that emphasized the ability licensing and inspection will have to resolve substandard housing. According to the report, speakers of the opposition, including representatives from the cities of Pasco, Tukwila and Seattle, expressed the lack of flexibility licensing laws would provide for individual cities to adopt their own programs for unique housing situations, according to the report.
On June 1, the Seattle City Council approved its own legislation on licensing and inspection. By passing it before June 10, the council was able to sidestep restrictions of the bill. This will allow the city to establish programs better-tailored to it, according to the text of the ordinance.
Following discussions in 2003, 2004, 2008 and as recently as December 2009, the Bellingham City Council will continue to consider the possibility of implementing these programs in Bellingham. Concerns about noise and housing quality, among others things, are prompting the council to revisit options for licensing and inspection in Bellingham.
At a May 24 council committee meeting, Mark Gardner, the legislative policy analyst for the city council, presented options for rental housing licensing in Bellingham.
During the public comment period, several landlords spoke in opposition to the potential programs, citing the rising costs for them and their renters alike.
“We have to wonder why all rental property owners should be punished for the sins of a few bad apples,” said Cal Leenstra, an agent for John L. Scott Real Estate in Bellingham. “Adopting this new draconian law, with new levels of bureaucracy and costs, seems unwarranted and ill-advised.”
Joan Sova, broker and president of Bellingham’s Son-Rise Property Management, Inc., pointed out that avenues exist for renters and neighbors to address problems.
A hypothetical scenario in Gardner’s report proposed licensing fees for landlords at $36 for single-family rental residences and $30 for all others, which would go toward costs for inspection. These costs would ultimately trickle down to the renter through increases in rent, Leenstra said.
Without question the tenant would pay for these increases to offset the cost, said Jeff Solomon, an attorney at Bellingham’s Belcher Swanson Law Firm, PLLC.
Dick Conoboy, a resident of the Samish neighborhood, also spoke at the May 24 council meeting. Under the pseudonym “The Zonemaven,” Conoboy maintains a blog that has been following the licensing discussion. In a recent post, he commented on Gardner’s hypothetical scenario that could add a $3 fee to each single-family home rental.
“The price of a large mocha coffee per month is hardly an unacceptable amount, given the prospect of increased health and safety protections that a licensing and inspection program would bring,” he wrote. “The Zonemaven’s question to the students is: ‘How valuable is your well-being?’”
After discussion at both the committee and regular city council meetings, the council voted to schedule a committee meeting at a later date in order to further discuss the topic.
“They can sit and talk about what this will look like until the cows come home,” Conoboy said.
Act requires tenants’ grievances to be addressed
With so many landlords in the Bellingham rental market, it can be hard to separate the quality ones.
“It’s like taking a bucket of bad apples and dumping it with a bucket of good,” said Bellingham City Councilmember Gene Knutson at the May 24 meeting. “It’s all mixed up.”
Dave Hansen, a broker for Lakeway Realty Property Management for more than 30 years, said about one-third to a half of his tenants are students.
“The biggest gripes that students have [are] not getting repairs done fast enough by an owner,” Hansen said. “I’m not particularly saying us, but any owners.”
One of the most common of these repairs is burst pipes, he said.
Washington State’s Landlord-Tenant Act dictates that certain repairs must be done within a specific amount of time. For instance, landlords are obligated to restore hot or cold water, heat or electricity within 24 hours of being notified. They don’t necessarily have to be completed within that time, though, Hansen said. He said his contractors can respond to and evaluate what needs to be done, but some cannot be finished because, for example, a part has to be ordered.
“Repairs are just a phone call away,” Hansen said.
Property management receptionist decries former employer
Western senior Melody Freeman related her experience working for Lakeway as an assistant secretary from September 2008 to January 2009. Although she never rented from the company, Freeman observed the practices of the employees and their impact on tenants, she said.
“I saw all these different situations and all these other people, and that’s when I was done,” she said. “Every day, there was a huge crisis, and I found myself crying every night because of the stress.”
Freeman’s day-to-day work included answering phone calls, writing letters to tenants and posting advertisements on Craigslist.org. Almost a month into her job, Freeman found that her duties expanded beyond what she was initially hired for, she said.
Soon, she said, she was expected to deal with angry tenants who refused to speak to anyone but the landlord.
Maintenance problems such as a tenant’s overflowing toilet were put on to her, only to get filed away and ignored, she said.
“And I know that, because I filed them,” Freeman said. “I’d just shake my head and put them in the file. I was so tired of getting in trouble for things that weren’t my fault.”
Washington state’s Landlord-Tenant Act prohibits withholding rent for any reason, but tenants would threaten it, demanding that their problems be taken care of. Most of them had the right to, Freeman said.
She granted that emergency maintenance issues such as a burst pipe that would cause damage to the residence were taken care of immediately. Likewise, tenants’ threats to sue would also trigger a prompt response.
“They were nice until you signed the lease,” she said. “Then, they grow horns.”
Students are not the only ones at risk
Steve Swan, Western’s vice president for University Relations, said he suffered because of the practices of one of those bad apples.
When he moved into his sub-leased house a year and a half ago, Swan said, he knew it would require a good deal of cleaning.
“When we moved out, the place couldn’t have been any cleaner,” he said. “It was immaculate.”
Despite assurances from the property manager that the deposit would be returned, Swan did not receive any of the roughly $1,200 deposit until four months later. Only after Swan’s realtor made contact with the company and threatened to get an attorney did he finally receive half of his deposit back, he said.
Western senior Lucas Hall has been following the rental licensing debate since attending a student-hosted forum designed to have tenants, landlords and community members discuss the possibilities together.
“[Rental companies’] bottom line is money,” he said. “For you to assume any different is naïve.”
As the state’s licensing law takes effect and the city council continues to debate it, landlords and tenants alike agree there are ways to prevent disputes.
“I think it’s like anything else in life. Read what you have up front,” Swan said. “Take time and have as best an understanding of what you are signing as you can. Ask tough questions.”
Hansen agreed.
“I see when people come in and read [the lease],” he said, “that’s a sign they’re going to be a pretty good tenant.”