The city council where I'm at has had their third reading of the Rental Housing Bill that they've been pushing and now it's in place. So the city will be hiring a inspector to inspect the rental properties to ensure the landlords have 'nice' places they're renting. The landlords fought this bill saying that it's going to drive rent up. However the city council was insistent due to the 'slumlords' that rent property.
My take on this is that it's going to backfire on them. Rent will go up because now a landlord has to register with the city yearly, the inspection costs money, after the inspection the landlord has to fix the problems, etc, etc, etc,... Needless to say some of the low end landlords will simply tear the place down instead of repairing.
I'm not a slumlord however I understand why they exist. They are the last chance for some of the people renting because no other landlord will take them even if that landlord has space available. We all know why. They most likely don't have the rent or the landlord has to chase them down constantly to get the rent and they also have a habit of tearing the apartment up. What's to become of them when there are no slumlords?... ANSWER: They'll be living in a storage unit, under a bridge, in a abandoned home, in a doorway of a back alley, etc, etc, etc,...
Needless to say I have a friend who works part time in law enforcement and I asked him if he was ready for business to increase. He didn't understand because he thought I was talking about his private business. I explained to him that I was talking about his law enforcement business due to the new Rental Housing Bill. He still didn't see the connection until I said something about having to check storage units and other places the homeless stay due to the new bill making it unaffordable for these people to have a apartment. He understood then.
I also suggested that he'd best have his taser charged and his Glock loaded if the city wants him to check on those things because when a person is that down on their luck things happen.
Seems like those in charge don't have any common sense and can't leave well enough alone.
*****SMILE*****