Recent news reports from a small town New Jersey are disturbing. According to the reports, city fathers are considering legislation to require landlords to register with the township and pay a fee. Nothing new you say? If this bill passes all landlords in the town will be required by the law to conduct background checks on their tenants.
Rental registration programs are popping up around the country. These ordinances are often a knee-jerk reaction by a local legislator exposed to some shabby rental property. Later he vents his outrage and displays his prowess in more laws. Funny, we never see similar legislation aimed at shabby owner-occupied properties.
The New Jersey legislation is a hint at what can happen when the city has the power to stop a landlord from earning a return on his investment. In this case, if the landlord fails to do a background check. Where will it end?
Florida Landlord Network doesn't just in favor of adequate tenant screening, we preach it and teach it and provide tools to help landlords do it. So we certainly don't object to the idea of doing background checks.
However, this is an example of what Government can and sometimes does with this kind of power. Will the landlord be required, now or sometime in the future, to forward the background reports to the government? If all landlords screen their tenants (most do not, by-the-way) what will happen to the thousands who can't qualify?
In some cities with rental registration laws, landlords are required to send the names and other personal information of everyone living in the home to the government. What does the government do with it? Why not require the same in owner-occupied homes?
In other cases, the government sets limits on the number of unrelated persons living in a rented home. When did that become a crime?
Still other programs require an annual inspection by Codes Enforcement. How would you like to face a Badge from the New Jersey Codes Enforcement department once a year knowing he has the power to shut you down if you don't make the repairs he wants, or other changes to your property, or even a fat payoff? Don't scoff, you know that happens.
Rental registration programs promise clean, safe neighborhoods. They actually deliver a new bureaucracy with the power to require a tiny constituency -- Landlords -- to quietly do things for them they could never get citizens in owner-occupied homes to do.
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Paul Howard is the President of The Florida Landlord Network.
He can be reached by email at:
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