Rent setting app

[EddMarkStarr]

Wow, I thought rent pricing was based on local prevailing rates, so I'm surprised that the price setting app RealPage is legal.

 

[TickTockMan]

I believe a few years ago my state, Oregon, passed a law saying rent can't go up more than once a year and no more than a certain percent. Most of the renters I know still say they have a hard time paying for their rent though. Many people I chat with in the local LGBT community on some other website say they become homeless and have to couch surf or live out of their cars for a while.

I blame government at all levels. My city has had a homeless and rent pricing issue for decades. One local pol even tried to "fix" the issue by bussing homeless people to other cities. Now Salem has a lot of brand new apartments, but rents are so much people I have contact with can't afford them and neither can the slightly better off, opening up cheaper units.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

The City of Seattle is proposing to ban other types of rent fixing methods. Landlords are not keeping quiet over this and are organizing efforts within, and outside, Seattle.

 

[unloadonme]

I thought the US more than anywhere else was the land of the free market. The price or value of something, whether that's a sack of potatoes or a flash penthouse apartment, is the figure at which a willing vendor is prepared to sell and at which a willing purchaser is prepared to buy. If a potential landlord uses an online service to determine the level at which he would be willing to rent, I'd have thought that's fair enough. If he uses a traditional letting agent instead, he'll still be advised about the going rate based on the agent's experience of the market. Ultimately, the landlord and tenant have to agree the rent to be paid, whether one calls that "fixing" or not.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

Renters are organizing to demand the City Council do something to cap rent hikes, and elected officials feel they are "shamed" into doing something, anything; even if nothings changes when all the dust settles.

 

[unloadonme]

Does the City Council have the legal authority to interfere in private financial matters like that?

 

[Dargelos]

The rent control system I want to introduce allows for any rent increase as long it is paid for by a pentalty of lashes.
Ten dollars/pounds a week rises mean the landlord recieving ten strokes of the lash. Slumlords with a hundred properties would get whipped a hundred times ten ie a thousand times. To be applied retrospectively in the case of the Trump Organisation. On live TV.

 

[opinterph]

elected officials feel they are "shamed" into doing something, anything; even if nothings changes when all the dust settles.

It is likely that nothing will change in the near term.

The Rent Control measure sponsored by Councilmember Sawant (Council Bill 120606) will only go into effect if the State of Washington repeals RCW 35.21.830, which preempts the imposition of rent controls to the state. "No city or town of any class may enact, maintain, or enforce ordinances or other provisions which regulate the amount of rent to be charged for single-family or multiple-unit residential rental structures ..."

Does the City Council have the legal authority to interfere in private financial matters like that?

Washington State decided to ban rent control based largely on the belief that it distorts the housing market. Rent Controls might discourage landlords from investing or maintaining their properties, leading to lower-quality housing. Rent controls might also deter developers from building new rental housing, which would worsen housing shortages.

Seattle currently has rent increase limits and tenant protection laws, but no rent control measures.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

Does the City Council have the legal authority to interfere in private financial matters like that?

Brilliant!

From what I've read, No. And the courts will quickly step when when the City Council oversteps.
Rent remains a transaction between landlord and renter!!!