Guaranteed way to make landlords care about crumbling apartments

[Mary lou L.]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/22/seattle-may-finally-have-found-a-way-to-stop-an-outrageous-practice-by-landlords/

from the article.

"From our perspective, this is not about controlling rent," says Faith Lumsden, the director of code compliance in the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections. "But boy oh boy, we finally found a way to connect the key minimum standards of our housing code to the heart of that property owner’s business enterprise."

"All we’re asking is that they be ready to verify that they meet the code, or fix something, or the rent can't go up."

[Account Closed]

I find this 'new law' odd, since we actually have a Rental Registration and Inspection Ordinance (RRIO) here in Seattle.   All rental property has to be inspected at least once every 10 years and they check for these major issues.  

@Steve Vaughan - The mentioned socialist City Council member is beyond Bernie-esque.  She has it in for us 'evil landlords'.  So my worry in this new law is that it's a baby-step in the direction she wants which is the elimination of any profit from housing.  There are many idiot landlords in Seattle like the guy they mention in the article that are slumlords or guys that raise rent 200% in one month and won't do gradual increases to keep things a little more sane in this market.  

My rental properties here in Seattle won't be affected by the law, because I'm not a slumlord and my properties are in great livable shape.  However, at what point will the law be modified to go beyond this original intent to enact rent control (which is unconstitutional in our state).  We all know that is the City Councils socialist agenda...they have made no secret about it.