Rental License Requirement | Baltimore County, Maryland

Rental properties.  Some swear by the investment; others swear off, due to the horror stories.  Fred and I found ourselves landlords by path of least resistance.  When we were in the very first months of dating, we were both house hunting, and since it was too early to know whether “We” would continue as such (for those who were there, no comments necessary regarding our on-and-off history), we both went ahead and settled on houses of our own.  One month and two miles apart. 

So when we DID finally get it together and get married, we owned one more house than we needed.  The market was still on the rise, and we’d realized a tremendous value increase in my townhome.  We decided to hold onto it and rent it for the foreseeable future.  We screened potential renters for a few months (I’ll post THAT whole experience separately), landed with our current renters who just signed on for a 5th year this spring, and never looked back.

Until Baltimore County Council Bill 87-07.  We heard it was coming and received notice in the mail just before leaving for an oversees vacation a few weeks ago.  By July 1, 2008, all landlords of single-to-six-dwelling housing units must now apply for a LICENSE to rent property in our county. (Apartment complexes already had separate legal requirements on the books.)

Why?  Well the up-side is that the Council is trying to address the “slum-lord” mentality in some areas of our county.  With aging structures, some renters are living in substandard conditions. 

The down side is that landlords like Fred and me – with our 1989-built townhome – are lumped into a new requirement that costs us an extra $200+ every three years, from now on. 

Don’t get me wrong: we fully support requiring landlords to maintain reasonable living conditions for their tenants.  We just believe that the existing rental laws already covered those sufficiently.  In fact, rental laws in Maryland prior to this bill were already MORE in favor of the renters than of the landlords.  For our part, because we love having good renters, we provide them with rent-breaks and upgrades to the home every year they re-sign.

So getting the notice that we had to apply for a “rental license” by July 1 or face $1000 a day (yes, three zeros) fines for failure to comply was a bit of a slap in the face.  We try really hard to be superb landlords – we even give Christmas gifts each year (and last year added a wedding gift on that occasion)!  But we, like the aparently-heartless-ghetto-lords in our county, now have to apply for, and then reapply every three years for, a rental housing license.

Obtaining or renewing a license requires a home inspection (this year’s cost: $150) which is a very quick check on the electrical, plumbing, appliances, smoke detectors, window/door function, and general safety items in the home.  Our inspection (last Wed.) lasted 15 minutes.  Easy money for our inspector, no?  The county also charges an additional license application fee ($50 this year for our single-dwelling); requires the inclusion of photos of the front and rear of the house; and requires completion of an application that also addresses items like lead paint abatement (which doesn’t apply at all in our case).

For us, it’s an extra hassle and an extra expense.  I drove the application packet to the county court house on Thursday because I wasn’t willing to risk a “lost in the mail” situation.  But OF COURSE we passed the inspection and have everything in order.

It’s sad that the county has to mitigate potential retaliation by landlords upon their renters for reporting unliveable or unsafe conditions.  If we were failing to maintain our house, our renters would be completely within their rights to report us.  But we would never get there.  Instead, we now have this additional expense to maintaining the property; and that expense is going to get passed on to our renters.  We’re not interested in losing money just to hold onto a second house we will never otherwise need.

The good news, for any of you who are in our situation and haven’t gotten through the process yet, is that I was able to handle the whole matter in four days.  (And I’m happy to answer questions for any others of you who are down to the last minute with this requirement, since I’ve been through it.) 

But the negative side is that it makes leasing a property in our county more work and more expensive.  We’re not charging our renters for my time running around to get the application ready and submitted, but I’m sure other landlords are figuring that in, too.  In an area that’s already very costly, it adds to the living expense for renters.  With the prices on everything else going up right now, it’s a shame that this expense is added this year, too.

What do you think?  Should all landlords be held to an inspection/rental licensing requirement with their county?  Or should the system work to handle actual problem situations, case by case?

by: Kim | June 23, 2008 | filed in: General
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