@Christen G. I emailed Tacoma's city council prior to this in an attempt to try and shed some logic from both a landlord and veteran agent's perspective that owns/works in the area. The late fees change is only one of several things that are problematic with most of the latest changes. In my line of work, I'm witnessing many more instances of tenants taking advantage of the overly burdensome process and backlogged system. One recent example, I have clients that obtained a writ of restitution on July 18 to evict a tenant, Pierce Co Sheriff can't schedule it until September 7th. The tenant hasn't paid rent since December 2022.
Here are a few other changes that are extremely disappointing.
• 120-day written notice needed before increasing rent. - The previous min of 60-days was plenty. I believed that 20 or 30 days was not enough for most tenants, especially when bumping rent 10% or more. But now when I sign a 3-month lease for my MTR, I need to immediately also deliver a notice of rent increase that can't even begin until month 4 should the tenant wish to renew.
• Deposits (Six Months or Longer Leases). Tenants will be allowed six, instead of three, months to pay move-in fees and deposits in monthly installments - There will very likely be tenants that pay the 1st month then stop paying in months 2-6. Landlords will be forced to start the eviction process that will take months and cost a couple thousand bucks, even if successful...and pray the tenant doesn't trash the place. Good luck recovering any funds to deal with damages.
• Prohibited from regulating or restricting dogs based on breeds, unless they have an insurance company-required breed restrictions, provided that any breed of service animal shall be allowed. - A landlord must now put themselves, their vendors and/or other tenants at risk by allowing dangerous breeds. I need to research this further but as a landlord, I plan to seek an insurance policy that restricts them. Either way, tenants could find some bogus document identifying their dangerous breed dog as a service animal.
The problem I continue to see, read and hear in our region is only addressing the concerns related to the tenants. There is very little dialogue about the financial burdens, stress and major inconveniences at risk for landlords. I'm advising clients to hire attorneys day one when needing to start any notice process, in any local city. An attorney advised me the first thing the tenant's court-appointed legal counsel at an eviction hearing will look at is the timeline for notice delivery. One misstep in the process, negates it all and you'll need to start the whole thing over again.
I don't have all the answers but things have become too lopsided in the tenants' favor here. There can be more common sense applied to find more balance.
Now don't get me started on Seattle....
