Just recently there was a bill introduced in the legislature entitled HB23-1171 Just Cause Eviction. If passed it would have prohibited the landlords ability to “Non – renew” a tenant. A non-renewal is simply the landlord not offering the tenant the ability to renew at the end of a lease term. Notice is given. This bill did not pass. We would like to hear your thoughts on the ability of a landlord to “non-renew”?
TAISHYA ADAMS:
I am empathetic to rental property owners' ability to offer a non-renewal clause. However, if the property is the same cost and/or the renter has not broken the lease, I would consider a just cause clause considering the current housing insecurities facing our communities. Renters pay the mortgage and often the taxes for property owners. It is their hard working dollars that fund our commons like transportation, housing, utilities, and health and human services. Housing affordability coupled with decades of discriminatory housing, banking, business, transportation policy at every level of government has resulted in the demographic inequities that we see in our cities and around the world. I have responsibilities on the investment my African American ancestors made to these Ute, Arapaho lands. Ancestors whose enslaved labor paid the the price for the Louisiana Purchase. I have responsibilities to the marginalized people past and present who did not benefit from discriminatory policies. Policies and custom (unwritten rules) that left poor, Indigenous, Black, and other racial minorities to live in a three block radius by the always overflowing Boulder Creek prior to the dam. I have responsibilities to customs and practices that displaced, disenfranchised, and disappointed communities who consistently contribute to the fabric of what makes Boulder, Boulder. I advocate for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all living beings. With the poly-crisis of climate, affordability, and culture, we must act intersectionality to resolve complex problems. When we have socio-economic extremes, we cannot be resilient when we need to be. Together, we thrive.
TERRI BRNCIC:
Just-Cause Evictions are a really important tool in a rent control environment to prevent landlords from churning leases to take advantage of vacancy rent adjustments. However, as a landlord here in Boulder and SF, I don’t see any justification for this type of provision in a market where rent increases are unregulated. A lease is a relationship between a landlord and tenant. Both parties are incentivized to maintain the lease arrangement - for the landlord, to maximize cash flows and for the tenant, to retain stable housing. Since landlords have latitude to raise rent upon renewal, there is very little incentive to non-renew without cause unless the landlord is seeking an alternative use for the property - in which case, they should have the full discretion to use their property as they see fit.
That said, I think it is important that there are clear provisions in the lease that provide guardrails in the event of a non-renewal. In particular, requiring the landlord to provide adequate notice and to provide transparency around the reasons for non-renewal in order to prevent discriminatory practices.
CHRISTINA MARQUIS:
Again, I would like to engage a board group of stakeholders to understand the impacts of any new legislation requiring Just Cause Eviction, including how it might benefit renters, burden landlords and increase or decrease litigation. Several amendments were made to the introduced language, and I would like to understand what is prioritized and/or changed in any new bill.
RYAN SCHUCHARD:
We need to provide a balance of protections between the renter and landlord. A renter should be able to have the security of knowing they can rent for an extended period of time, something that is especially valuable in the face of the housing crisis in Boulder. In such a policy, I would want to make sure we have flexibility for landlords, especially smaller landlords, to do what they need to do with the property.
The landlord should have sensible protections, such as being released from obligation if the tenant is guilty of an unlawful detention of real property. Landlords also need the ability to perform repairs, modifications, sell the property, and change the use of a property as needed.
TARA WINER:
I did not like this bill. Meth production and bike chop shops are some of the things landlords have to deal with and need the ability to end a lease due to sometimes bad or even criminal behavior. And likewise, some people have severe mental health issues that would affect other tenants' quality of life. They are not always ready to live alone unsupervised. Right now it takes months to evict someone who has not followed the rules. Taking away a landlord's ability to non-renew is taking away one of the few options they have for ending a lease with someone that has for instance, destroyed property, or not been a good neighbor.
The unintended consequences of that law would have been landlords taking less risks with people living on the margins. We need landlords to take those risks, as they are a big part in the solution to housing people that are unhoused.