By the Rental Housing Journal

​The rent payment tracker for June showed 92.2 percent of apartment households had paid some rent by June 20, according to a release from The National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC).

The NMHC found in its survey of 11.4 million units of professionally managed apartment units across the country that 92.2 percent of apartment households made a full or partial rent payment by June 20.

This is unchanged from the share who paid rent through June 20, 2019 and compares to 90.8 percent that had paid by May 20, 2020. These data encompass a wide variety of market-rate rental properties across the United States, which can vary by size, type and average rental price, according to the release.

The NMHC Rent Payment Tracker metric can provide insight into changes in resident rent payment behavior over the course of each month, and, as the dataset ages, between months. While the tracker is intended to serve as an indicator of resident financial challenges, it is also intended to track the recovery as well, including the effectiveness of government stimulus and subsidies.

However, noteworthy technical issues may make historical comparisons imprecise.

For example, factors such as varying days of the week on which data are collected; individual companies’ differing payment collection policies; shelter-in-place orders’ effects on residents’ ability to deliver payments in person or by mail; the closure of leasing offices, which may delay operators’ payment processing; and other factors can affect how and when rent data is processed and recorded.

Total unit counts may change as units are leased or vacated and survey methodology is refined.


“With the support of expanded unemployment benefits, stimulus funds and significant efforts by apartment community owners and operators to help residents impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19 and resulting financial hardships, it seem most renters were once again able to meet their obligations,” Doug Bibby, NMHC President, said in the release.
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“The early steps taken by lawmakers have proven critical to keeping many safely and securely housed. As we move forward and the economy begins to recover, it will be vitally important that lawmakers continue to support the nation’s renters and forestall even greater economic harm,” he said.

3 In 10 Americans Missed Housing Payments in June

On the heels of some very good results out of this legislative session I would like to announce some changes coming to Washington Landlord association very quickly.  It begins with the bitter sweet news that Mark Gjurasic has finally elected to enjoy some retirement with his lovely wife and foster children.  

After this session and several decades of hard dedicated and fruitful representation Mark is ready to pass the baton to our great friend Chester Baldwin in a full time capacity. This change also sees us making additional changes to our organization in that Chester has elected to step back from our volunteer attorney help line.   

To help facilitate a more equitable share of responsibility WLA will be relocating 
our offices from Chester’s office space to a new site at:

1219 11th Ave SE Suite 101, Olympia, WA 98501

The Olympia Office will be moving on Friday, February 28th
and will be closed until Monday.

We will be providing a map to the new location on our website (please scroll down below to view map) and hope to have it available at the old office for a short time as well. 

I just want to say that I have very much appreciated Chester’s stellar and generous help over the years and I look forward to his continued and increasing efforts as our lobbyist in decades to come.  

With regard to the help line our process remains the same.  I will be available for questions related to the west side and Eric Steven for the east side.  That being said the process has been misunderstood by some so I want to take a quick minute to remind our members about some of the details regarding our help line. 

Advice is limited to 10 or 15 minutes as the attorney is available. Attorney advice may also come from that attorney’s staff. Advice is limited to landlord tenant issues and we are not offering to give advice on any other subject matter. If you call the attorney directly you are not being offered the WLA membership benefit and you must first call one of the WLA office employees to see if they can respond to your query with best practices advice. If not then you may be referred to the volunteer attorney.
 
Once again I just wish to conclude with a profound thank you to Mark and excitement with what the future will bring under Chester’s lobby administration. ​

New WLA Olympia Office Location - Map

 Dear WLA Members: 

Please notice that the bills that we oppose (HB 2520 & HB 2453) are scheduled for Executive Session (vote out of committee) on Friday, January 31 at 10:00 a.m. in the Civil Rights & Judiciary Committee in the John L. O’Brien Building Room A. Our members should contact the committee to oppose these bills. Provided in the following is a link to the contact info of the committee members: http://leg.wa.gov/House/Committees/CRJ/Pages/MembersStaff.aspx

1. HB 2520 - Addressing documentation and processes governing landlords' claims for damage to residential premises. OPPOSE
2. HB 2453 - Providing protections to residential tenants. OPPOSE
3. SHB 2069 - Concerning a property owner's or tenant's liability for delinquent and unpaid utility service charges. SUPPORT

1.     HB 2453/SB 6379 – Statewide Just Cause – Further Statewide Tenancy Restrictions.
Creates statewide Just Cause restrictions similar to the City of Seattle:

• Ends fixed term lease agreements--ostensibly creates a perpetual lease agreement.
• The bill will make it much harder for small landlords to protect the health, safety, and welfare of other tenants in their community.
• Makes it practically impossible for a small landlord to remove a tenant who is dangerous or disruptive to their community.

Sponsors:  Representatives Macri, Thai, Lekanoff, Gregerson, Robinson, Ryu, Frame, Kloba, Peterson, Santos, Bergquist, Johnson, J., Davis, Pollet; Senators Kuderer, Darneille, Das, Keiser, Lovelett, Saldaña

STATUS HB:      House Civil Rights & Judiciary Committee
                            Executive Session: Friday, January 31 at 10:00 a.m. – JLOB Rm A
STATUS SB:       Senate Housing Stability & Affordability Committee
       
2.     HB 2520 – Requires Excessive Documentation to Withhold from a Deposit.
This legislation would make it unreasonably difficult for a landlord to withhold legitimate damage from a tenant’s security deposit:

• Makes it much more difficult for a landlord to withhold legitimate damage from a tenant’s Security Deposits.
• Requires massive and detailed documentation including, the age of all fixtures, equipment, and furnishings, the time since their installment or replacement, and their useful life for every tenancy in order to charge.
• Limits the time to bring an action for recovery of damages exceeding the deposit to within one year of the termination of the rental agreement.

Sponsors:  Representatives Thai, Macri, Doglio, Morgan, Entenman, Pollet, Ryu, Robinson

STATUS:             House Civil Rights & Judiciary Committee
                            Executive Session: Friday, January 31 at 10:00 a.m. – JLOB Rm A
 
If you need anything else, please let me know.
Thank you in advance.
Many thanks.
                                                                                     
Mark Gjurasic
Public Affairs of Washington, LLC
mgjurasic@comcast.net
(360) 481-6000

Dear WLA Members: 

Attached in the PDF link below is the Action Alert on SB 6490 - Endangering Tenant Safety - which is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Human Services, Reentry & Rehabilitation Committee on Thursday, January 30 at 1:30 p.m. in the John A. Cherberg Building, Room 4. (Address: 304 15th Ave SW Olympia, WA 98504)

​WLA opposes this bill!

To contact the Committee Members about this bill, please see the following link:
Senate Human Services, Reentry & Rehabilitation Committee - Contact Info - Link

ACTION ALERT ON SB 6490 - PDF LINK
 
Thank you in advance.
Many thanks.
                                                                                     
Mark Gjurasic
Public Affairs of Washington, LLC
mgjurasic@comcast.net
(360) 481-6000

With the passage of a statewide cap on rents in Oregon and California, as well as expanded rent regulations in New York and Washington, D.C., rent control policies are gaining traction across the United States. Although there is no shortage of academic research on the negative effects of rent control, NAA engaged Capital Policy Analytics (CPA) to model its impacts on four metropolitan areas, all of which have had increasing calls for rent control during the past two years: Chicago, Denver, Seattle and Portland.

Please see the PDF Link Below to view the full report:
​
Modeling the Impacts of Rent Control - PDF LINK