This is clearly a proposal being promoted by the large corporate landlords like Invitation Homes (more than 200 rentals in Thurston County) to push more small landlords out of the business.
The large landlords have full-time maintenance staff who can show up just before the inspector, while small landlords sometimes work, and need a day or two to fix a dishwasher or air conditioner. But the corporate landlords charge higher rents, and tenants pay those costs.
The result of this will be a little complicated. First, more small rental owners will sell their properties. They may go to people who are shopping for homes to buy, and that's fine, but it will reduce the supply of rental units on the market. A lower supply of rental units means higher rents.
Or they may be sold to the large corporate rental owners and commercial property managers and their investors. That means higher rents, because the corporate landlords use complex algorithms to raise rents as much and as fast as the market will bear, while small landlords usually raise rents slower for reliable tenants who pay their rent and don't abuse the property. I certainly did that with the three rentals I sold several years ago.
Finally, the small landlords who choose to keep their rentals and register and pay fees under this program will certainly raise rents for their tenants to cover the costs. That's how markets work.
So, no matter how it turns out, on a property by property basis, the result is higher rents for tenants. That seems to be the City Council's objective. Drive renters out of Olympia, and into Lacey and Tumwater which do not have these types of extra regulations and extra fees.
No wonder a developer just proposed to build 1,150 apartment units in Tumwater. Tumwater will get the property taxes for that.
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