Author Archives: rmheditor
Do I Need a License to Rent My House?
This varies from city to city, but be sure to check with your local Department of Housing to ascertain whether you’ll need a license to rent your house. While you may be tempted to skip this step, you do so at your own peril. In cities that do require a license, renting your property without one is illegal—and in many cities, this means you have no legal right to collect rent. You also run the risk of incurring significant fines and of being denied a license once you’ve been caught renting your property without one.
Fortunately, the process of securing a rental license is relatively painless. Here are the steps you’ll need to take:
- Fill out an application and pay the fee. Obtaining a rental license application can be as simple as visiting your Department of Housing’s website and downloading the proper forms. If your city doesn’t make the application forms available online, a quick trip to City Hall should do the trick. Licensing application fees are generally under $100.
- Schedule an inspection. Not all cities require this step, but most will send out an inspector, who will check to make sure that your prospective rental meets basic habitability and safety requirements. Plumbing and electrical systems will be checked to make sure they’re in good working order and hazard-free. You’ll also need to have working smoke detectors in place, proper ventilation for appliances that require it, etc.
- Make any required changes. If anything comes up during the inspection, make the needed repairs, using a licensed contractor for any major, skilled work that needs to be done. Once you’ve completed the work, you can schedule another appointment to get approved.
Once you’ve received approval, you’ll be mailed your license and will be free to accept tenants.
Rentership Nation
According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, rental housing is currently the one bright spot in a dismal housing landscape. The rental property values—for apartment buildings in particular—are skyrocketing, as rental vacancy rates drop and rent prices climb sharply. WSJ states that this sudden demand for rentals is driven largely by “millions of people who are victims of foreclosure or are unwilling or unable to buy their own homes.”
Even some of the cities hardest hit by the housing crisis and subsequent economic downturn are experiencing increased demand for rentals and corresponding spikes in rent prices. In fact, “Of the 82 major markets that Reis tracks, only Las Vegas [has seen] rents decline” year over year.
Industry experts predict that the national home-ownership rate could easily fall from the current 66.4% to 60% in the near future, with “Each 1% decline in the home-ownership rate [representing] the movement of one million households to rentals.”
Struggling Homeowners Sue City of Winona, MN
The city of Winona, Minnesota, has an unusual ordinance in place governing rental houses: No more than 30 percent of houses on a given block can be turned into rentals.
Homeowners Ethan Dean, Holly Richard, and Ted and Lauren Dzierzbicki call this law “unconstitutional and illegal” and are suing the city in an attempt to obtain rental licenses for their properties, which they haven’t been able to sell, given current market conditions.
The city enacted the 30 percent law in 2005, in an attempt to unclog street parking and minimize neighborhood disturbances, while also preventing a substantial portion of any given block’s houses from falling into disrepair. Now that the housing market has fallen apart, homeowners unable to sell their homes for various reasons want to be able to rent their homes out to “offset upkeep, utility, and property-tax costs.”
The case is being handled by the local chapter of the Institute for Justice, which champions property rights, among other concerns.
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Source: Winona Daily News