City council debates next step in rental licensing

Bellingham City Council will vote on the next step to take in the rental licensing dilemma in future meetings.

Whether or not Whatcom County will progress with a rental licensing program will soon be up for vote among city council members. According to council member, Terry Bornemann, the council is currently scheduling a meeting for the planning committee to discuss options for rental licensing. It will take 4 “yes” votes out of 7 for the council to move forward and examine the framework of the potential program.

In 2008, Mark Gardner - public policy analyst for the City of Bellingham, put together a study on the effect of rental licensing in other cities, highlighting the most feasible options for Bellingham. According to the study the recommended program would be phased-in; beginning with property registration and landlord education, from there a cycle of inspection or self-certification would most likely be implemented city-wide.

The goal of self-inspection would be “to augment a more formal inspection process that can reduce program costs and reduce the burden on rental property owners,” according to the study put together by Gardner. It would require landlords to inspect dwelling units themselves, certifying that they would pass all health and safety regulations.

“It’s really hard to tell at this point what the council [collectively] is thinking,” said Bornemann, “it’s important to get discussions started.” According to Bornemann, some members of the council want a more limited program, like a complaint-based or self-certification system. Some want the city to take an aggressive stance, and some aren’t fully informed about the situation. “My personal philosophy is to start off with the least intrusive program and see if it works,” said Bornemann.

New bill complicates decision making

The proposed implementation of the program has only become more complex since the passing of a new bill in early March. State Senate Bill 6459 states that a local government can only require the inspection of rentals every three years, it also details the rules of inspections for large units (such as apartment buildings) and the allowance of sample inspections within dwelling units.

“Right now everything is a little cloudy because of the new law,” said Gardner “no one knows exactly how it will affect things because it is brand new.” Gardner expressed that the 3-year cycle of inspection, whether city-governed or self-certified, would not be helpful “at that point it’s like ‘why bother?’” he said.

The framework of the type of program potentially implemented in Bellingham is still being debated city-wide

In his study, Gardner provided examples of both inspector-certified and self-certified programs; he believes self-certification may not be as effective. “It’s kind of like an honor system, a self-certification system would be more effective than the current complaint-based system, but less effective than an inspector program, you can also combine the two,” he said.

Richard Maneval, chair of the Association of Bellingham Neighborhoods, doesn’t believe self-certification should be included in the potential program at all, “self-certification is not effective,” he said “it depends too much on the individuals, I have a fear that the city will still fail to be aggressive at enforcing this thing. The means and methods for solving this problem need to come from the government.”

Although there is debate about what program would be most successfully implemented in Bellingham, many believe that a program is necessary, “rental licensing is the direction many cities are going,” said Gardner “overtime as problems [with rentals] increase cities begin to see it as necessary.”