Whether you agree with it or not, Spokane's rental registry is law.
Under an ordinance passed unanimously last year, all landlords are required to obtain a small-business license and register their property with the city.
But not everyone is complying. Some landlords vocally oppose the registry, while others just don't feel like their particular situation necessitates a business license. Others still don't know about the requirements and don't realize they're out of compliance.
To incentivize registration and add consequences for not complying, Spokane City Council voted 5-2 to update the municipal code last month: Now, landlords who are not licensed and registered are not allowed to raise rent or evict tenants.
November and December are the annual renewal periods for the registry. In 2025, code enforcement will start issuing civil infractions to properties that are not in compliance.
City Council member Michael Cathcart, who supported the ordinance that created the registry, feels the city hasn't done enough outreach to educate landlords and tenants about it.
"We haven't told you about it, we don't know how you'd know about it, we've not issued any citations to anybody who hasn't been in compliance to get that word out, but now we're going to jump to this radical, sort of nuclear option," Cathcart said before voting against the new restrictions during the Oct. 14 City Council meeting.
Supporters of the ordinance said the new consequences are in line with the intent of the registry, which they say benefits both tenants and landlords.
"In looking at the original rental registry, it was very clear in the law — if you are not part of the registry then you will not be operating a rental unit in the city of Spokane," council member Paul Dillon said.
THE GOALS
The main goal of the registry is to ensure all rental properties are inhabitable, safe and maintained regularly.
One simple advantage of the list is contact information. Landlords who live far away are sometimes hard to contact, says Jason Ruffing, code enforcement supervisor for the city of Spokane. Phone numbers usually make resolving issues — such as a dangerous tenant, a leaking roof or a plumbing issue — a whole lot quicker.
"If we do see deficiencies, we have a faster way to get in contact with them, as opposed to just depending on a mailed notice," he says.
The original ordinance's two requirements cost landlords money. A small-business license in Spokane costs about $130 per year. Plus, there's an annual $15 per unit fee to register. The yearly registry fee specifically helps fund the code enforcement staff needed to inspect all the rental properties across the city.
"I've been in many rental homes and saw wires hanging out of light sockets and outlets that don't operate and tenants having to use a bucket of water to fill the back of the toilet tank because their plumbing is not working," says Terri Anderson, the interim executive director for the Tenants Union of Washington State.
"Now with the rental registry, not only can tenants call code enforcement to have them take a look, ... [but] the rental registry provides the revenue to pay for that," she continues. "Otherwise taxpayers have to pay for code enforcement, and that just doesn't really seem fair."
Ruffing and his team of code inspectors respond to all kinds of issues reported to 311, the city's complaint hotline. This year, the hotline has received more complaints than ever — more than 270, most of which are related to substandard building issues. Nearly two out of every three complaints stem from rentals.
When inspectors respond to a building complaint at a rental property, they first check to see if it's registered. If it's not, the inspector will explain how to comply with the law while also dealing with the complaint.
Code enforcement is also proactively inspecting rental properties that are registered. A team of four started inspections in May, and so far they have completed over 700 inspections at registered rentals in six months.
"When we do an inspection at a property and we find no violations, or only very minor violations, that's an indication to us that we probably don't need to spend a lot of time there," Ruffing says. "Over time, we will be focusing our time on the properties that need our attention most. But it takes some time to get there."
An additional benefit of the registry is data collection. Not only could the registry help pinpoint troublesome properties, but it could also help the city understand if small "mom and pop" landlords are disappearing from the rental market. Once the registry is a few years old, it could reveal how many small landlords are selling to larger developers, which is a concern for affordable housing advocates.
"At this point, it's pretty much industry standard for a code enforcement department that there would be a rental registry and inspections program," Ruffing says.
As of Nov. 1, there were 4,796 properties listed on the rental registry, representing about 24,000 rental units. Based on 2020 census estimates, that's probably about half of the existing rental units in the city.
THE REALITY
Gary Dennis first moved into his home in the Lidgerwood neighborhood in 2017. He rented half a duplex for himself, his dog Sammy, and a few friendly garden gnomes. They all got along very well with his next-door neighbor in the other half of the duplex.
In 2020, Dennis' landlords decided to sell. But they worried that a new owner might jack up rents for their tenants. So they worked with Dennis to sell him the property, waiving as many fees as they could so he could buy the home with a Federal Housing Administration loan and a modest, cashed-out retirement fund.
Now, Dennis is technically the landlord of the property. But he shares an inside wall with his tenant and thinks of her as a neighbor, not a client.
"I just bought this to try to make sure I wasn't homeless when I got to Social Security age," Dennis says. "It wasn't that I looked at it as, 'Oh, I'm going to make a lot of money.' I can't pay the mortgage by myself. I depend on her to keep a roof over my head."
Dennis works from home so he's always around to help with leaky faucets, burned out lightbulbs or washing machine troubles. He charges his neighbor a below market rent so she can afford to live there on a service industry salary. He wants her to stick around because she's quiet, respectful, and a great friend to share the garden and patio barbecue with.
Dennis says he didn't know about the registry until he read about it in the news. He was surprised, because he feels like he doesn't need code enforcement to make sure he maintains his property — it's his home, too.
Dennis would happily volunteer for the rental registry to help collect data. But he doesn't see why he needs to pay for code enforcement that he doesn't need or a business license that he doesn't think accurately reflects his situation.
"I am not a business," Dennis says. "What changes in my world because I have a business license? Can you now sue me as a business? Do I have to get business insurance?"
But in the same way that a small business owner could work from home, even landlords that live onsite should be considered small business owners, Dillon says. Council member Jonathan Bingle agrees, though he voted against the additional restrictions last month because he thinks they miss the point.
"I think that if you're doing something to generate income for yourself, if it exceeds a certain threshold that the state has defined, yes, you are a business," Bingle says. "Now, at the same time, I think you can make exceptions for certain sizes of businesses and that's what I wish this legislation would have done. Who they're really trying to get after are the slumlords. People like Gary are not slumlords."
Mariah McKay, another landlord who manages 24 units with her husband Jim Dawson, is also in favor of a registry. But she says there are complications that small businesses face.
"The biggest thing our small business has faced is not being able to afford potential legal fees if we needed to rely on the court system to resolve a residential dispute," she says. "There's not an easy way to resolve small disputes and that, I think, encourages landlords to not be proactive in managing their tenant relationships in their properties. It leads to a posture of neglect that is not our style or our values."
Regardless of licensing and registration, there are plenty of other reasons that Dennis has considered selling the duplex. Last year, his insurance doubled. His property tax has increased by 50% since 2020. Plus, he's worried about what will happen if his neighbor decides to move out — tenants only have to give a 20-day notice to move out, while landlords in the city are now required to give a four- to six-month notice if they're going to raise rent more than 3%.
"If I were to receive a notice to vacate, I would lose next month's income," he says.
He could sell the duplex for a lot more than he bought it for a few years ago. Every time he hears about more fees and regulations, it rekindles his desire to "get rid of my headache."
"It doesn't have to be this adversarial," he says. "Why don't you send me a letter and say, 'Would you voluntarily register? We'd like to keep track of how many small landlords versus big landlords are out there so that we can watch the demographics of how the industry changes.' I would have gone, 'You know what? I don't like big business. I'm happy to join so that you can monitor how many mom and pops are being eaten up by corporate America.'"
NEXT STEPS
So far, Ruffing and his team have been focusing on helping people comply with the law. But in the new year, they will start writing citations for landlords who are not registered, which is a civil infraction.
To avoid writing citations, the city is trying to identify properties that might be in violation and contacting them during this renewal season.
"We've identified a lot of them ourselves, and we've been sending letters about the program and the need to register those properties to those owners," Ruffing says. "Then in December, we will also be doing a utility bill stuffer for some additional outreach for a lot of those single family home rentals. It's hard to know that they're rental properties — apartment buildings are usually a bit more obvious and easy to find, but we're hoping that the utility outreach can help us reach some more people."
"Landlords are competing for the best tenants. Making sure everyone has appropriate housing actually supports that."
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Properties that are offering rents below market rate are eligible for a waiver of the $15 per unit fee, which is often passed on to the tenant. Landlords can ask for help getting onto the registry or any clarifying questions they have by emailing [email protected].
Tenants can check if their rental unit is registered by going to aca.spokanepermits.org and searching their address under the Code Enforcement tab. Make sure to select "Rental Registry" from the dropdown "Record Type" menu.
With a more accurate registry, McKay hopes that current tenants and landlords will be protected, and that the data will help the city make smarter decisions about where to invest housing funds.
"By providing a better public record of the housing that's available and the housing that we need that might not be available, [we can use] those numbers to make a case for more strategic funding going toward affordable housing," McKay says. "Landlords are competing for the best tenants. Making sure everyone has appropriate housing actually supports that." ♦
