Tenants' Rights: The Real Story
By Brett Glass
One of the most contentious issues in the 2024 City Council race is
tenants' rights and how to protect them. And no wonder: More than half
of Laramie residents are renters! Unfortunately, some candidates are
trying to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt regarding this issue in
the hope that it will get them elected. Here's the straight dope on
tenants' rights and landlord-tenant relations in Wyoming, and what I
(as both a tenant and a rental property manager myself) believe we can
do to make things fair to everyone.
Not legal advice
Before I begin, let me say upfront that nothing I write here should be
considered to be legal advice. I am not a lawyer, and therefore I'm not
authorized to give situation-specific advice to anyone. However, I do have
experience dealing with landlord-tenant issues from both sides, and in
fact have gone to court as both a tenant and a landlord. So, please
treat this document as general public information and policy advocacy.
If you need help with the legal aspects of a landlord-tenant dispute, consult a lawyer. There are
some good ones in Laramie, and the UW Law School's Civil Legal Services Clinic and the nonprofit Legal Aid of Wyoming offer free aid to those in need. Equal Justice Wyoming,
a state funded civil legal services program, can also help you locate
inexpensive or free legal help. Full-time UW students can seek help
from the University of Wyoming's Student Legal Services office.
Wyoming Landlord-Tenant Law
Every Wyoming tenant and landlord, and every policy maker concerned
with landlord-tenant issues, should be intimately familiar with
Wyoming's landlord-tenant law. It's Title 1, Chapter 21, Article 12 of
the Wyoming Statutes, and the 2024 version is available at this link. It's an easy read and does not require a law degree to understand. It lays out the rights and responsibilities of both landlords and tenants. And,
contrary to what some advocates of stringent local rental regulation
claim, it does require all residential rentals to be "safe, sanitary,
and fit for human occupancy" and that the landlord maintain "electrical
systems, plumbing, heating and hot and cold water" and "other
appliances and facilities as specifically contracted in the rental
agreement." It specifically allows the tenant to terminate the lease if
this isn't done. It also provides for the tenant to be awarded damanges
by a civil court (which in Albany County would be the Circuit Court,
which is also a Small Claims Court) if the landlord doesn't fulfill his
or her duties. Finally, it gives tenants specific rights with regard to
security deposits and property left behind after a move-out. Article
13, which immediately follows it, allows a tenant to terminate a lease
if the tenant is fleeing domestic abuse or sexual violence.
Laramie's Controversial Rental Property Ordinance
At its January 4th, 2022 meeting, the Laramie City Council adopted a
"Rental Housing Code" which is intended to very strictly regulate
residential rentals in Laramie. This controversial ordinance requires
all rental housing (even rented to family members) to be registered and
licensed; imposes a tax (euphemistically called a "licensing fee") on
every rental; limits who can do repairs (which delays them; a
landlord's handyman can no longer pull a permit and just fix
something); demands that landlords make tens of thousands of dollars of
unnecessary changes to perfectly safe and attractive rental units; and
imposes a complaint procedure that - confusingly for tenants - is
completely different from the state statute and distracts tenants from
pursuing effective remedies via the Circuit Court. Enforcement of the
City ordinance is subject to the whims and opinions of city
bureaucrats, whose decisions cannot be appealed by the tenant (a
violation of due process). And by enforcing its ordinance, the City
could actually force landlords to evict tenants, causing hardship that
the tenant would not suffer if he or she used the straightforward and more protective process laid out in state statute.
Once the City ordinance was adopted, a landlord with a very good
reputation, Bell Leasing, sued the City, claiming that parts were
illegal and conflicted with state law. The judge agreed that some parts
of the ordinance did violate state law. The City amended but did not
repeal the ordinance, leaving some disputed provisions in place. At
this point, Bell Leasing realized that it didn't have the financial
resources to go back to court against an opponent which had infinitely
deep pockets and was using taxpayer money (including some of its own!)
to defend an ordinance that was likely still illegal. Bell Leasing
decided that rather than pursuing a legal
fight against the new version, it would instead give up on doing
business in Laramie and began to liquidate its holdings. Laramie lost a
good landlord.
To this day, many problems remain with the City ordinance. As of this
writing (September 2024), the legality of the new version has not
yet been tested. According to
a report made to Council by the City Manager in June of 2024, the
majority of Laramie rentals are not registered or licensed. (Finding
all of them would require intrusive searches that would likely be
unconstitutional.) After 32 months, fewer than half of all tenant
complaints were even accepted by the City, and of those, fewer than
half - a total of only 21 - had been resolved in any way. This track record hardly
merits taking more $160,000 out of the pockets of Laramie tenants, via taxes
on their landlords, and applying it to raises for middle managers rather
than using it for any public benefit.
The Laramie Ordinance Does Not Solve Tenants' Most Common Problems
As if these negative consequences were not concerning enough, the City ordinance is also unable to achieve positive solutions to most of the problems that tenants face:
A Wyoming city cannot grant tenants rights.
The Laramie ordinance, if it is legal (a question which has not been
settled since it was revised), at most allows the City to go after a
landlord for
failure to obtain a license or for having a rental that doesn't meet
its overly specific requirements. But it confers no rights upon the
tenant. Only the state government has the power to grant rights. And to
exercise those rights, the tenant must still go to the Circuit Court.
Cities can't get a tenant monetary damages.
In Wyoming, municipal (city) courts are only criminal courts; they
aren't civil courts. That means the city cannot award the tenant a refund
of rent, a refund of the security deposit, or compensation for other
financial damage. Those claims must still go through the Circuit Court.
Cities can't terminate a tenant's lease.
Only a civil court can terminate a lease as per Wyoming law. The city
licensing ordinance therefore creates an awkward conflict between the
City ordinance and state law. The City - by revoking a landlord's
license to lease a unit - may declare that a landlord may not rent to a
tenant, while at the same time state law dictates that the landlord must
continue to rent to them. What's more, unless the lease is terminated
by a civil court, state law dictates that the tenant is still on the
hook for rent.
Cities can't stop evictions.
Many landlord-tenant conflicts involve evictions, lockouts, and
"constructive evictions" (situations in which a landlord attempts to
force a tenant out by making the unit unliveable). Unfortunately,
because evictions are civil matters, and cities do not have civil
courts, a city doesn't have the power to stop a landlord from evicting
a tenant. However, as mentioned above, it may try to force
a landlord to remove a tenant by revoking their license to rent the
unit. Thus, involving the city in a landlord-tenant dispute can
actually do the tenant harm.
The Laramie Ordinance Has Made Rentals Scarce and Expensive
While the Laramie
ordinance cannot help tenants with many of the most common problems renters face (as mentioned above),
it has been successful at doing much harm to Laramie renters. Since
Laramie passed its Rental Housing Code, the owners of many of Laramie's
most affordable rentals have removed their properties from the market
rather than make unnecessarily expensive modifications that do not
improve their habitability or safety. Others have sold their properties
to out-of-state private equity firms that have hiked rents. The result:
rentals have become harder to find and less affordable. (I recently
posted a reasonably priced one bedroom rental on Craigslist and
received a dozen calls during the first hour
- from prospects who told me that they were desperate to find a rental.) The ordinance has also made rental maintenance and
repairs difficult by requiring that they be done only by specific
licensed contractors rather than by a landlord's handyman. This,
ironically, has led to tenant complaints that repairs have been slow...
when it's not the landlord's fault but rather the city's.
Going to Court
You're not required to be accompanied by a lawyer when going to court
to resolve a landlord-tenant dispute, though it doesn't hurt to seek
advice and coaching from one of the organizations mentioned above, or
from a lawyer, especially if you've never been to court before. The fee
to file a civil suit in Small Claims Court is $10; there is a separate
fee to have the Sheriff serve the defendant with papers. Both fees can
be recovered as part of the judgment if the court rules in your favor.
If you're requesting the court to take action other than awarding money
damages, or are suing for more than $6,000, you can file a Circuit
Court suit. The fee is higher - $70 - but the court can do more for
you. And again, if the court rules in your favor, you should be able to
get the money back as part of the judgment.
What's the Solution?
Housing
is already
regulated by Federal law, multiple Federal agencies, state law, and
several state agencies. An additional layer of onerous, badly written
regulations (the Laramie ordinance was copied from a city in Oregon
where it was not working) that unnecessarily burden landlords and make
housing scarce and unaffordable is not the solution. Landlord-tenant
disputes are often messy, with disputes over facts, details, and
timelines. There are usually contradictory "he said/she said" accounts
of what happened. An experienced, no-nonsense judge in a civil court
(which the City does not have), with the power to order financial
restitution and "specific performance" (fulfillment of a contract), is
needed to sort them out. Enforcing tenants' rights at the state level,
and perhaps modifying state law if the public feels that the statute is
not sufficiently explicit, is the only way to do this effectively.
What's more, it is fairer, because it provides exactly the same
remedies to renters who live outside the city limits as it does to
those who live within them. Wyoming is the "Equality State;" our state
constitution makes multiple references to the concept of equal
protection. Tenants' access to redress should not change when they cross the
city limits.
The City claims, in the preamble to its ordinance, that its goal is "to
help renters and owners communicate with each other so they can resolve
their issues without further city involvement." It can best do this by
providing services that actually facilitate communication, such as an
ombudsman, and informing parties of their rights and responsibilities
under state law.
Regulation at the municipal level should be limited to planning,
zoning, and similar tasks explicitly delegated by state law to cities.
It should not burden either tenants or providers of housing -
especially affordable housing - via unnecessary bureaucracy. Bigger
government and thoughtless, counterproductive overregulation are not
the answer.
Brett Glass, Candidate, Laramie City Council Ward 2
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