OREGON RENTAL HOUSING NEWS SUMMER 1997
Case in point, landlords clearly came out on top this session with victory after victory. Our top priority, of course, was the landlord/tenant omnibus bill (Senate Bill 675) which experienced troubled waters in the beginning of session but sailed through the latter part. Page 7 outlines the highlights of SB 675. The law goes into effect on September 30, ninety days after sine die. In the mean-time, ORHA will revise its forms to conform with the new law. Furthermore, this fall Sharon Fleming-Barrett, ORHA Legislative Director, will be conducting seminars so landlords can utilize the new laws and use the new forms to their benefit.
With over a 150 bills that ORHA tracked this session, the top ten priorities all came out in our favor. Page 3 lists those bills and their legislative status. Furthermore, Norton Cabell will write and publish the ORHA Law Book which will reflect all the changes. As for losses, ORHA dodged every potential loss that was presented to us. All in all, it was a tremendous session for the Oregon Rental Housing Association.
© 1997, Oregon Rental Housing Association
In 1977, twenty years ago, Affiliated Rental Housing Association was established. The first state convention was held five years later in 1982. In July 1995, the name was changed to Oregon Rental Housing Association to better identify who we are. I have the honor of serving as president of ARHA and ORHA. For 20 years we have strived to become an important and dynamic rental association. The fruits of our efforts were evident at the 1997 ORHA Convention.
The first was the PRO Certification program with 65 enrollees in the Landlord/Tenant Law program in PRO 1. Thank you to ORHA's State Education Committee who developed the certification program, chaired by Roberta Claudson from Southern Oregon ROA.
The second was the introduction of ORHA's website. Yes, we are on line! Thank you to ROA of Southwestern Oregon for preparing us for the 21st century. ROASW is the first ROA to have their own page. E-mail will bond the ROA's, strengthen the local and state committees, and help us reach the landlords that are not members.
The list goes to infinity. ORHA and the 16 ROA's have found and developed excellent ways to educate members. With this knowledge, membership has grown immensely. Salem has become active with 50 plus members. Two new associations, Columbia County with 40 members and Yamhill County has 30 members. Thank you to Morgan Howells of Clatsop County and Judy Steiner of Salem and Yamhill for the time and energy in developing the associations. The Brookings area will be organized soon.
We can look back for several years with pride to our lobbyists Chuck Adams and Shawn Miller, and the Legislative Committees with Sharon Fleming-Barrett as chair, for many accomplishments in the landlord/tenant laws. The Oregon Rental Housing Association Law Book, edited and annotated by J. Norton Cabell, is a unique and extremely helpful tool. Another useful tool is ORHA's current and legal forms, helping us manage the rental property in a professional and business-like manner.
Our association has become very dynamic and vital to Oregon's rental housing industry. Words can never express my real feelings to all of you for all your support to your own local associations and to ORHA. The friendship and the camaraderie we have with each other is wonderful and precious. Thank you for the opportunity to serve as ORHA's President for the past two years. Remember... Effective communication is essential! Let's chat!
The past year marked a great resurgence in recruiting new members throughout the state. This endeavor was spearheaded by a banner effort from your State membership committee. The Salem association, which had been dormant for some time, re- emerged as a working member of the ORHA. It was brought back to life by a concentrated target mail campaign, and seminars presented by the leaders of the State organization. Enrollment for the introduction seminar was so overwhelming that another one had to be scheduled just to seat all the people! Yamhill County now has its own association. More seminars and another aggressive mail campaign targeted potential members.
The committee also completed work on a State "new member" notebook, and an ORHA forms display, which shows all our forms at meetings to show members what they look like and to increase sales. Both the notebook and the forms display were at the State convention in the ORHA booth for inspection and/or purchase. Next year, the membership committee is going to try to open yet another local association. Right now it looks like Brookings or Baker City is the best candidate.
| Support | Landlord/Tenant Omnibus Bill. | |
|---|---|---|
| Status: | Passed Senate | 27-0 |
| Passed House | 51-0 | |
| Senate Concurrence | 28-0 | |
| Awaiting Governor's Action | ||
| Support | Allows property managers to pay Finders fees to tenants who bring in other tenants. | |
|---|---|---|
| Status: | Passed House | 54-0 |
| Passed Senate | 25-0 | |
| Governor Signed | ||
| Support | Repeals low income housing trust fund. Establishes funding for low income renters from eviction filing fees. | |
|---|---|---|
| Status: | Passed House | 46-7 |
| Passed Senate | 22-4 | |
| Awaiting Governor's Action | ||
| Support (originally opposed) | Modifies smoke detector requirements in Oregon (Originally required hard-wire retrofit in every dwelling). | |
|---|---|---|
| Status: | Passed Senate | 25-1 |
| Passed House | 48-6 | |
| Awaiting Governor's Action | ||
| Oppose | Prohibits discrimination in housing on basis of person's status as student. | |
|---|---|---|
| Status: | No action taken | |
| No Position (originally opposed) | Creates private investigation license and regulation (originally required landlords to have private investigator license to obtain background checks on individuals. Landlords were specifically exempted from the bill). | |
|---|---|---|
| Status: | Passed House | 50-3 |
| Passed Senate | 24-3 | |
| Awaiting Governor's Action | ||
| No Position | Measure 50 implementation language. Ability for property owner to invest $10,000 per year into dwelling without affecting assessed value of property. | |
|---|---|---|
| Status: | Passed House | 33-27 |
| Passed Senate | 20-10 | |
| Awaiting Governor's Action | ||
| Support | Allows on-site management and maintenance staff to replace an existing garbage disposal, dishwasher or an electrical hot water heater. | |
|---|---|---|
| Status: | Passed House | 55-1 |
| Passed Senate | 20-6 | |
| Awaiting Governor's Action | ||
| Oppose | Imposes statewide real estate transfer tax. |
|---|---|
| Status: | No action taken |
| Oppose | Restricts landlord from prohibiting tenant from operating child care facility. |
|---|---|
| Status: | No action taken |
ORHA Past President, Susan Strawn presents this years Harvey Youngblood Award to Shawn Miller. ORHA President, Norton Cabell presents this years Landlord of the Year Award to Pete Sobeck of Coos Bay.
Kudos to Southern Oregon Rental Owners Association for an enjoyable and educational convention. It started on Thursday the 19th with a golf tournament (congratulations to Bill Arbus who scored a hole in one) followed by the PRO seminar on landlord/tenant law, taught by Carlyle and James Stout. The subject was comprehensive and the room was packed, and most everyone came away knowing more about Chapter 90.
ORHA's board of directors met in the evening, at which the Rental Owner of the year award was presented to Pete Sobek for his work in both Southwestern Oregon Rental Owners Association and ORHA. The trade show Friday morning featured mini-workshops by each vendor, an innovation that made the time more educational. At lunch, Paul Warner, State of Oregon Economist, gave an overview of the economy in the state, including regional predictions for the next several years.
The afternoon speaker was Michael Warren, whose talk was titled Profiting with Adult Congregate Living Facilities. In Oregon they're generally called adult foster care homes and he explained the economics and profit potential in this niche of the residential rental market. Next was a fabulous jet boat ride down the Rogue River. even the weather cooperated, with bright sun and temperatures in the seventies. Just as well, since a few of us did get slightly wet (or totally drenched).
Saturday's work sessions included Southern Oregon ROA's own Paula Frey talking about 1031 changes, and particularly how pending legislation will change these; Attorney James Welty speaking about estate planning, managing to make sometimes esoteric subject matter pertinent and interesting; and Claude Diamond, in a talk titled Lease Purchasing, explaining methods that give tenants a stake in the property and incentive to maintain it while increasing profits to the landlord.
Lunch featured updates from Shawn Miller and Sharon Fleming-Barrett on what was happening in the Legislature. We also had Association reports, during which we all learned from one another what works and what doesn't to make our various associations better and stronger.
The annual awards banquet was Saturday night. President Susan Strawn presented awards and certificates to various people. Most notably, Shawn Miller was awarded the Harley Youngblood award for his work in the trenches to get our omnibus bill passed this session. Additionally, new officers were sworn in for the coming year: Norton Cabell, President; Sharon Fleming-Barrett, Vice President; Terry Flora, Secretary; Virginia Rice, Treasurer; and Susan Strawn, Past President.
| * | quickly advertise their rentals to web literate clients and companies |
|---|---|
| * | drastically reduce the cost of advertising |
| * | describe their rentals more completely that costly newspaper ads |
| * | permit and include photos |
| * | reach distant clients who intend to move into the area where the rentals are |
| * | exchange information with rental owners state-wide through the website's bulletin board |
| * | promote issues of importance to landlords in local, regional and state legislatures |
| * | defend the interests of landlords against bills and/or ordinances that would be harmful |
| * | educate the ORHA membership on landlord tenant laws, ethics, safety, flood/fire/earthquake hazards and techniques for success |
| * | inform the membership with newsletters, bulletin boards, alerts, vacancy rates, PRO sessions, convention plans, vendor discounts or specials, etc. |
| * | generate revenues from website advertising. |
Future tenants will be more computer literate, particularly the younger generation which generally start out as renters. Public access computer terminals will become more common and probably be found in libraries, post offices, shopping centers, schools, and in phone booths. The printed page decrease in importance as the faster and cheaper qualities of the web become more fully realized by the public. On-line advertising will displace much of the printed advertising. Landlords will have to learn how to organize their computerized rental records with adequate filing systems and back-up procedures to prevent misplacing or loosing records. ROA of SW Oregon became convinced that the internet could be useful in filling their empty units and keeping local members informed about the chapter's activities. The website plan grew to include the following: l rentals available where members can advertise their units for $5.
The ROA-SW website is continuously advertised
in the "for rent" section of the local newspaper, and attracts both landlords
and tenants. Within 6 months of having put the website online, over 30
new members have joined the SW chapter. The website (Oregon-Rental-Housing.Com)
was described to the ORHA board and offered to ORHA as a model to unite
our state-wide organization. We realize that our site is still in its adolescent
stage, but think it will be a powerful asset as it matures and as the renting
public gains computer literacy.
Will Wright, SW-ROA Webmaster. wrightcb@harborside.com
ORHA's Forms Committee is pleased to announce Form #52. A co-signer agreement has long been needed in our package of forms and it's now here. It's simple to fill out (all it takes is a date, naming the various parties, listing the property address, and identifying the rental agreement) and it obligates guarantors for either a month-to-month rental or a term lease. It gives the co-signer the option to cancel his or her guaranty after six months (if the underlying lease isn't a term lease) after a 60-day notice, but warns them the landlord may then terminate the tenency.
One caution with using this form: Most of us have forms signed in person, with the tenant signing in our presence. For any form not signed in your presence, it may be wise to ask that the signature be notarized, or at least witnessed. We left room on the bottom of the form for that but didn't include specific wording because acknowledgement language changes from state to state, and because putting it on the form begs the question of whether or not it is required.
Also remember, the form does nothing about screening your co-signer. If your co-signer isn't any stronger than your applicant, have you accomplished anything? So screen your co-signer.
| * | Actual notice provisions have been increased to include delivery of written notice to landlord at the rental office or by posting on the landlord's residence door. |
|---|---|
| * | Actual notice may also be achieved by any other method agreed to in writing by both parties. |
| * | A list of payments a landlord can require has been added. They are: Applicant Screening Fees; Deposits to Secure the Execution of Rental Agreement; Security Deposits; Fees; Rent; Prepaid Rent; Utility or Service Charges; Late Charges or Fees; and Damages for Non-compliance with the Rental Agreement. |
| * | Written notice from the tenant to the landlord must be extended by three days if served by mail only. |
| * | Drug and alcohol free housing laws have been extended to Housing Authorities. |
| * | Clarification added of when the landlord must provide the name, phone number and address of the screening company used. |
| * | Definition of last month's rent deposit and how and when to apply it is now included. |
| * | Expands use of designated non-refundable fees to be applied to a charge before using the Security Deposit. |
| * | Fees can be charged only once at the outset or during the tenancy except: Late Fee; Dishonored Check Fee; Smoke Detector Removal or Tampering Fee; and a Fee for Non-compliance with the Rental Contract. |
| * | Clarification that nonpayment of any required fee can be grounds for eviction under ORS 90.400 (1) or 90.630. |
| * | Allows landlords to pass through utility or service charges for both the unit and a share of common areas if so provided in a written rental agreement. |
| * | Clarification that nonpayment of such required utility or service charge constitutes grounds for eviction under 90.400 (1). |
| * | Strict liability is redefined because of Davis vs. Campbell. |
| * | Clarifies landlord's remedy when tenant unreasonably denies access. |
| * | Allows tenants to serve a 48 Hour with Cause Notice to Terminate the rental agreement if landlord negligently fails to provide an essential service which would pose an imminent and serious threat to the life, health or safety of the tenant. Landlord has right to cure the breach within the 48 hours. |
| * | Allows tenants to obtain injunctive relief or to terminate the rental agreement if landlord seriously attempts or seriously threatens to diminish services to the tenant. |
| * | Prohibits landlord from discriminating against potential tenants on the basis that tenant previously won in an eviction action either by having the case dismissed or by judgement. This does not apply to cases pending. |
| * | An act outrageous in the extreme is more clearly defined. |
| * | "Person under the tenant's control" defined as on the property with tenant's permission or consent. |
| * | "Proof of Service" by process server may be accomplished by certificate rather than affidavit. |
| * | Tenants may waive rights to abandoned personal property notice and process. |
| * | Storage of abandoned personal belongings shortened from 15 days to 5 days when notice served personally. Three days must be added if served by mail. |
| * | Clarification that landlords can charge tenant prior to release of personal belongings except following court eviction. |
| * | Releases landlord from responsibility of providing garbage cans. |
| * | Discounted rent clearly defined as type of late fee restricting demand for payment of rent before due. |
| * | Clarification that 90.400 (1) second notice can't be based on warning notices. |
| * | Clear definition of squatters and exclusion from coverage under landlord/tenant law allowing police to remove them without landlord incurring cost of F.E.D. |
| * | Vacation rentals defined and excluded from coverage of act. |
| * | Allows F.E.D. Stipulated Agreement/Orders to become Judgments for full amount tenant agrees owed if tenant remaining in possession is conditioned upon payment(s). |
| Norton Cabell | President |
| Sharon Fleming-Barrett | Vice-President |
| Terry Flora | Secretary |
| Virginia Rice | Treasurer |
Clatsop Co. ROA September 1st, 97
Contact: Morgan Howells (503) 738-0943
Columbia Co. ROA September 9th, 97
Contact: Jan Renzelman (541) 397-2140
Douglas Co. ROA August 26th, 97
Contact: Terry Flora (541) 672-3434
Klamath RHA August 12th, 97
Contact: Felice Koblos (541) 884-6488
Lane Co. ROA August 27th, Sept 24th,
Oct 22nd, 97. Contact: Help Line (541) 485-7368
Linn-Benton Co. ROA August 25th, 97
Contact: Sharon Leibrant (541) 926-9227
Mid-Columbia ROA August 19th, 97
Contact: Karen Maravilla (541) 298-4568
Northeast OR ROA
No meeting in August. September 11th, 97
Contact: Leslie Hasse (541) 963-4156
Oregon Apartment Association
August 20th, 97 Annual BBQ
Contact: OAA Office (503) 249-1728
Salem RHA August 14th, 97
Contact: Judy Steiner (503)375-6609
Southwestern OR ROA August 28th, 97
Contact: Jane Hatfield (541)269-1912
Southern OR ROA August 20th, 97
Contact: Mark Kellenbeck (541) 476-1141
Treasure Valley ROA August 25th, 97
Contact: Rick Hutchinson (541) 889-5351
Umatilla Co. ROA
Contact: Anne Dare (541) 938-7700
Yamhill Co. ROA August 12th, 97
Contact: Judy Steiner (503) 434-2038
| September 13, 97 | Klamath RHA (Klamath Falls) | Contact: George Warner | 884-9146 |
| September 16, 97 | Yamhill RHA (McMinnville) | Contact: Judy Steiner | (503) 434-2038 |
| September 18, 97 | Columbia Co. ROA (St.Helens) | Contact: Jan Renzelman | (503) 397-2140 |
| September 20, 97 | Salem RHA (Salem) | Contact: Judy Steiner | (503) 375-6609 |
| September 27, 97 | Oregon Apartment Association (Portland) | Contact: Sharon Fleming-Barrett | (503) 223-7639 |
| October 4, 97 | Douglas Co. ROA (Roseburg) | Contact: Terry Flora | (541) 672-3434 |
| October 7, 97 | Clatsop Co. ROA (Seaside) | Contact: Morgan Howells | (503) 738-0943 |
| October 11, 97 | Treasure Valley RHA (Ontario) | Contact: Beth McDaniel | (541) 889-5600 |
| October 13, 97 | Northeast OR ROA (LaGrande) | Contact: Leslie Hasse | (541) 963-4156 |
| October 14, 97 | Umatilla Co. ROA (Milton-Freewater) | Contact: Anne Dare | (541) 938-7700 |
| October 23, 97 | Central OR ROA (Bend) | Contact: Michelle Anderson | (541) 382-7727 |
| October 25, 1997v | Linn-Benton Co. ROA (Albany) | Contact: Curtis or Sharon Leibrant | (541) 926-9227 |
| November 1, 97 | Southwestern OR ROA (Coos Bay) | Contact: Jane Hatfield | (541) 269-1912 |
| November 8, 97 | Southern OR ROA (Medford) | Contact: Janet Green | (541) 776-7674 |