A lot of landlord/tenant ballot initiatives on the docket this ..

[Tom Fidrych]

Earlier in the year someone posted an article stating that the government is going to take over the rental market. I take that to mean an increasingly regulated environment.

Anyone have any regulations to share that were enacted in their local?

In various areas I'm seeing rental % increase caps, 90 day notice for increases, banning or reducing application fees, reducing deposits to 1 month rent.  Potentially disallowing the use of credit scores and criminal record. If property managers keep getting backed into a corner, at some point is there a constitutional limit as to how far you can be regulated? 

[Nathan Gesner]

Coastal blue states and a few interior blue states are getting heavy-handed with regulations. They treat renters as if they are always innocent and Landlords as if they are always guilty. They tend to have a justice system that is back-logged so it's very time-consuming and expensive to prove your innocence and regain control of your investment.

These laws will eventually creep into the red states because every government tends to degrade over time and lose sight of things.

Laws I've seen (even prior to COVID):

1. Landlords forbidden to terminate a lease except for a few specific reasons;

2. No evictions during winter months even if tenant stops paying rent

3. If lease is terminated, Landlord must pay moving expenses for Tenant

4. No rent increases over X% in any 12-month period

5. Tenant can move in anyone they want and Landlord can't stop them or terminate the lease because of it

6. If someone breaks into a home and claims to be a resident, the Landlord has to go through eviction court to get them out

7. Landlords have to pay up to 5% interest on security deposits even if banks are paying 0% interest

8. Mandating self-closing hinges on garage doors?

9. Even after winning an eviction, some states can take 30 days or more before they will send someone to forcibly remove the tenant

10. Some areas say you can't consider criminal history when screening applicants

11. In the states that are most difficult to evict, they often have limits on what you can charge for the security deposit. There may be a limit of 50% of a month's rent for the deposit, but the tenant can get away with six months or more of not paying rent

I could go on all day.