Rental licensing to affect more than just rental units

The Alabama Hill Neighborhood is examining the effect of a rental licensing program on residents who are not directly associated with the business of rentals.

The Bellingham City Council is thinking of allowing landlords a self-certification system, instead of the more common approach; housing certification granted by an outside source. In this system landlords would certify themselves that the rental unit did not break any health and safety violations.

For Dick Conoby – blogger of “zonemaven” – this is not enough. He believes that self-certification needs to have back up. He says that in terms of the rental licensing issue in Bellingham, if self-certification was followed up by an inspection by an outside source, that plan could work, but otherwise he wouldn’t solve the major issues of health and safety.

The new program, either self-inspection or a more regulated system will not have a major effect on people who are not directly involved in the business of rental units in Bellingham. Larry Nicholas, president of the Alabama hill Association, estimates that Alabama Hill is 15 percent rental units and 85 percent non-rental units.

However, although there are only 15 percent rental units, the number of landlords residing within Alabama Hill will ensure that more than 15 percent of the neighborhood population will be affected by any new policy.

The summary of the proposal estimated that landlords will have an annual fee of thirty to thirty-six dollars. Although the fee is likely a feasible amount for most landlords, the cost of fixing all health and safety problems found in a home that is essentially open to the public is expected to be high for landlords who do not sufficiently take care of their property, which realistically, is the majority of them, either unknowingly or intentionally.

The city is still in the debate over rental licensing:

Click here to read the proposal https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=4b4f4b7553&view=att&th=1289992282f1f471&attid=0.1&disp=vah&zw

Click here to see the city council’s meeting discussion of the proposal (Dec. 7th)
http://www.cob.org/web/council.nsf/webmaterials!OpenForm&Start=14.7&Seq=1

Click here to read the Dick Conoby’s blog zonemaven dedicated to the issue
http://zonemaven.blogspot.com/