Call to Action - Lakeland Investors

[Manny Cirino]

Reposting on behalf of the PCREIA

It has come to our attention that the City of Lakeland is working on a proposed Resolution and Ordinance relating to the registration of residential rental property. Code enforcement will be able to enter your rental property, do interior inspections, require you to list with the City of Lakeland the names of all your tenants and more!...

It is our understanding that this proposal was originally presented because the city code enforcement department expressed that they could not collect fines placed on so called "bad apple landlords" who are multiple code enforcement offenders. So their solution is to make ALL investors who have properties in the city of Lakeland register each of our investment properties so that they can monitor/inspect/and regulate them.

Please note: if you do not have properties in the city of Lakeland--Please support this CALL TO ACTION because once it is passed in Lakeland, all municipalities will be looking to adopt it....It WILL affect all rental properties in Polk County.

to see the latest draft of the

proposed ordinance and resolution

Here are just a few tidbits of what you will see in the draft proposal of the ordinance and resolution:

1) They will "require that we provide the city with a list of the names of all tenants in each unit"

2) They will "require that the owner agrees to allow inspection of the interior and exterior of the unit at any reasonable time..." and they can even enter your property with something called "an administrative search warrant"...what the heck is an administrative search warrant? Is code enforcement now going to be allowed to create a search warrant and enter any property they want?

3) They require that the owner or designated property manager be available and can be contacted 24 hrs per day, 7 days per week regarding the rental unit

4) They can deny issuance of or revoke your registration application so that you cannot rent your property

5) The fee for one unit starts at $100 per unit per year and can go up to $2000 per unit if you ever have code citations...please see the fee schedule.....

These type of regulations have a way of "growing". In other words, we have seen first hand in other areas in Florida and out of state where once a seemingly non threatening rental property registration was in place-- over a period of time, they inevitably increased the regulations until the fees and challenges of meeting their regulations just became impossible. One area has all rental properties inspected every time there is a change in the electric service on the units.

In fact...when this proposal in Lakeland was first drafted they were proposing "drive-by" inspections every 4 years then it went to a more recent draft that stated a required "drive-by" inspection every 3 years--and now today, we have already escalated to being required to allow "interior and exterior inspections" and we haven't even gotten it out of the draft stage! What is next?

Comments should be made today--we ask this because although it is not on the agenda for the next City Commission meeting (Sept 19) we have learned that they are working hard to get the drafts completed immediately so they can put this in their upcoming budget meeting and get the funds allocated immediately! This is moving along quickly, folks..

We have provided you with a few talking points below these addresses to inspire you to email today.

1. Go to the Talking Points area in this email and copy the text you would like to use in the email

2. then go to the email addresses below -- click on the email address and paste the comments you copied into your email -- you can then change the wording, add your own thoughts etc

3. send the email...send a copy of that email to every one on this list or create new emails to each of them.

ACT TODAYACT NOW

Talking Points You can use in your emails or phone calls:

I am a business owner and a real estate professional in Polk County. I share the city's goal of eliminating "blight" within our residential neighborhoods. These goals will keep our city properties secure and continuing to increase in value.

However, I am concerned about the proposed rental property registration ordinance you are considering here in Lakeland.

or you could say :

Adding more regulations in the form of your proposed rental property registration on top of what you already have in place is not the way to reach these goals...

here are some more things you might want to say:

• I do not feel adding another layer of regulation will solve the problem of repeat code enforcement violation offenders
• This type of additional regulation is unfair to the upstanding landlords in the city of Lakeland--we are all going to be punished for the sins of a few
• Requiring all owners/property managers to be available to code enforcement 24 hrs a day/7 days per week is unreasonable and unacceptable. We could get fined if we are not available 24/7?
• According to your proposal Sec 18-14 (a) 3 says that the "owner agrees to allow inspection of the interior and exterior of the unit at any reasonable time, provided however, that nothing in this provision shall be construed as authorizing the City to conduct an inspection of an occupied unit without first obtaining either consent of the occupant OR an administrative search warrant" Please explain: what is the definition of "reasonable time"? And what is an "administrative search warrant"? This whole section is an --uncalled for-- intrusion of our properties and an invasion of privacy. And it is all based on what?
• The City Commissioners are setting up the City of Lakeland and rental property owners for possible lawsuits. In a case in Ohio, the Federal Court ruled that rental inspections were unconstitutional. See Baker vs City of Portsmouth
• This type of regulation will present new administrative, workforce and financial burdens for the city and the providers of rental housing within Lakeland when you have other choices as to how you can collect these code enforcement liens--see how the County presently does it along with other local municipalities like Winter Haven.
• My costs for providing affordable, quality housing for the local workforce and low-income residents has been steadily going higher and higher. New fees and redundant regulation will only make things harder for property owners like me.
• Requiring us to provide the City of Lakeland with the names of all the tenants in every unit that we or our clients own is not only an invasion of their privacy but will be a record keeping nightmare for both the City and for us.
• What due diligence have you done to make sure there are not other ways to collect fines against repeat offenders? There are other municipalities that have found ways to collect these fines without this type of regulation/registration ie: Polk County simply attaches a non ad valorem assessment to the property taxes.
• Several of the sections in this proposal are already covered under your code enforcement regulations--cod
• You must consider that the folks most impacted will be the tenants of the city of Lakeland as the Landlords will have to raise the rents to compensate for the unknown potential costs of these new regulations
• Because it has been stated in your meetings that you are proposing this ordinance and resolution based on the number of non compliant repeat code enforcement offenders, I am formally requesting a list of all of these repeat offenders you are basing this proposal on. If this ordinance is going to cause me to have to comply with such strict guidelines, I want an accounting of exactly who these offenders are before this is approved.
• Please consider my comments regarding this issue and look for other ways to solve the challenges you face with repeat landlord code enforcement offenders.

CUT AND PASTE --ADD OR SUBTRACT-- But send something today, please.

Also forward this to everyone on your email list--even if they do not have property in the City of Lakeland--what we all need to be concerned about is that once it is passed here--other area municipalities will follow suit. So please let's support each other now and send your opinions today.

You can also show up at the meetings and let the City Commissioners know how you feel. Here are the dates of the upcoming meetings at city hall in Lakeland: find the dates and address for the meeting here

[Austin Lazanowski]

email address for the entire commission or individual commissioners can be found here: https://www.lakelandgov.net/city-government/city-commissioners

Here is my email i wrote to them:

To my city comissioners,

I have been a resident of Lakeland, FL nearly all my life. It is my home and it is my passion. I appreciate everything that this commission and past commissions have done in order to keep Lakeland moving forward.

Because of my presence here and the position that I have with a large IT consulting firm, I have brought over 3 full time positions making salaries ranging from 45k-75k (not including myself) to Lakeland, a position in valrico with a salary at 110k and am continuing to expand even further in this next year doubling those positions and increasing overall salaries. As an initial investment partner, I have helped create a successful business with Mike Dodge with Lakeland's Beer Revolution bringing an even stronger presence of craft and local beverages as well as providing jobs. I am 30 years old and decided to spend more of my investment money becoming a residential investor. In fact, I picked up a dilapidated property that had been a foreclosure for some time from a previous slum landlord at 1301 Josephine street, Lakeland, FL 33815 and have already dropped over 35k in critical repairs and improvements (where slumlords would put maybe 1-2k in) including a brand new roof (the previous having major leaks and water/mold damage), new drywall, fully new electrical replacement to meet code standards, brand new full plumbing to meet code standards, new HVAC instead of window units, new soffit/fascia, new water heaters, cabinetry, appliances, broken windows getting replaced, etc. I have taken what was a horrible sight in the community where a past "slumlord" ruined the place and have made it habitable and a massive improvement for the area. I strongly believe that if you take care of the property and the tenants inside, that (usually) they return the favor back.

So this is why this proposed resolution (even in draft form) bothers me so much. I could have been a jerk and just done the minimum to get by. I would have made a MUCH larger cash on cash return. However, I wanted to provide a better place for my tenants to live. I'm sure you're all thinking "Thats great! We wish all our landlords in the community were like you" and i get that. For every good landlord there is one cheating the system. But instead of finding ways as a community to encourage good investors like myself and providing positive incentives, this resolution does the exact opposite. It costs me significant money & time (and in my line of work and specialty of IT consulting, that directly translates to $250.00/hr that I could be doing instead) because some other crappy landlords haven't been doing what they should. This means that i am less inclined now to want to ever acquire additional properties in Lakeland and instead take my investment and rehabilitation money elsewhere. It also means, that in order to meet my same profit margins that i had been willing to come down to in order to improve the property that i have to raise my rents on tenants. Affordable housing is already a big issue - why make this worse?

So here are my thoughts after reading the entire draft; I know its easier to see list forms of things instead:

1. You specifically target residential (4 units or less) in housing. There are apartment complexes that have significantly worse conditions and yet they are not being addressed. If you are going to target residential investors, then you are choosing sides.

2. For all of the reasons that have been brought up of why this resolution should happen, we already have solutions in place:

• We already have code enforcement officers. If the issue is that they are overworked, then that should be addressed as a city in their budget and shared amongst ALL owners (not just landlords) as part of a property tax assessment.
• The issues of "noise", "parking", and other civil complaints can and should be enforced by our law enforcement officers. Laws exist, enforce them. If the issue is brought up, the landlord /property manager should be contacted and informed - and then they can bring it up with the tenant in a respectful manner or determine next steps.
• The above issues are also almost always caused by troublesome tenants. Because of tenant friendly laws, there are many who abuse their rights because the only option that exists to the landlord is termination of contract and the procedure to try to evict costing the landlord thousands of dollars in legal fees, more in lost rent, and even more in the likely damage that occurs when tenants are mad about being evicted. These funds are almost never recouped because by the time any court lien is in place, the tenant has no assets to pay for these and moves on to the next "sucker" landlord.
• If things are overgrown, I suggest the city instead have a partnered lawn service company that will mow/maintain to standards, and bill the landlord for it in direct special assessments on their property tax so they cannot avoid paying it. Charge whatever you want there - they'll get the point quickly. Then you're creating jobs still in the lawn service company.
• Laws already exist in place where a tenant can choose to pay a licensed person to perform the necessary repairs and withhold it from rent when a landlord refuses to perform their duties. If Lakeland wanted to improve this process, they could again, partner with related companies from Lakeland (roofers/plumbing/electrical/etc.) and help a tenant get what they need and defend the tenant's rights there.

3. Putting a requirement of 24/7 communication requirements on a landlord (or designated property manager) is outright absurd. I should not have to be available Sunday at 3am for a call from a code enforcement officer. I should be able to disconnect and turn off my phone for a good night sleep. We have 911 for emergencies, and there are 24/7 electrical/plumbing/locksmith/etc. services that exist out there. I specifically leave only certain business hours for tenants to contact me because I do NOT want to be barraged with requests at 1 am at night for when a tenant clogs a toilet.

4. Even worse, you designate that a property manager must be a named individual AND located in Polk or Hillsborough county. Apparently Osceola, Sumter, Pasco, and orange are just too much even though they border us. Why does this location requirement even exist? You are making local property managers a coercive monopoly. I cannot imagine even one scenario where I couldn't perform these duties remotely even when i was in Virginia. If i need to have my property showed i can call a realtor. If there is a damage or other landlord manageable issue, i can call the right authorities or the right service resource to come out and do the repairs. I can have handymen do walk throughs and make sure the tenants are keeping the place appropriate. I'd be interested in seeing the reasoning behind this idea.

5. providing a list of all tenants could be construed as an invasion of privacy. If and when a search/arrest warrant is issued, Landlords already comply with law enforcement.

6. Using words like "reasonable" in a legal document can always have repercussions. What is a reasonable timeframe for one person is not always the same as the other.

7. This type of resolution pushes the city of Lakeland to be more inbetween the tenant and the Landlord instead of letting a tenant resolve with the Landlord first. By providing them with all of the brochures and notices seems like a good thing, it will end up having the tenant contact the city code enforcement before actually contacting the Landlord and letting them resolve the issue first. After all - we are not owner occupied - how could we know that the A/C isnt working unless the tenant tells us first?

8. These seemingly random and frequent investigations by code enforcement who's sole job is to "find something wrong" is going to create astronomical costs that people who are owner occupied in their homes would not even think is an issue. You want to cause investors who bring affordable housing to run away? That will do it.

9. You are penalizing me for doing good. This is like hiring law enforcement officers to focus on solely drivers who forget to use a turn signal instead of dealing with those driving drunk/running red lights/selling drugs/etc and making me pay for that cop to sit and watch me and make sure that i use my turn signal (or else).

10. Your open language could construe also putting these same laws/rules on people who rent out their second home on a vacation home/airbnb style status. You can guarantee that burden is going to greatly impact the many people who help provide housing during critical events such as sun n' fun fly in that our hotel industry cannot meet the demand of today.

11. While you do have an option to appeal an enforcement penalty, you're also opening up massive headaches for property managers and landlords when dealing with a troublesome tenant that they are already evicting. We aren't their parents - we cannot sit outside and make sure they arent throwing trash on the ground, or destroying the inside of the property, or causing noise/parking violations, or ignoring their requirement to mow the lawn if its a single family property. Tenants getting evicted are normally mad - and these enforcements would be causing us even more headache during an already tumultuous time.

12. Instead of passing a law punishing everyone for the bad behavior of the few, lets make sure to ramp up the laws against the few and prevent them from getting to stay landlords in Lakeland, FL. I'm open to suggestions about repeat offenders being banned from acquiring non-owner occupied property in the city.

I plan to attend whatever city commission meeting(s) that exist about this resolution. If you pass this resolution, I do not know how much longer I will choose to invest my time or money in Lakeland. I will however, fight this all the way, and for those who choose to vote I will work hard to campaign against you on the next election. Not because I have anything against you personally, but I believe in keeping Lakeland, FL a place for someone to want to call home and where businessmen and investors want to keep their money in. We can't do that when we start passing laws that punish everyone for the ignorance of the few.

Sincerely,

Austin Lazanowski