New Green Rental Housing Ordinance will push Ann Arbor rents even higher, landlords say

Well, duh. More restric­tions, more reg­u­la­tions, more red tape = high­er costs.

Via The Ann Arbor Inde­pen­dent:

The Green Rental Hous­ing Ordi­nance aims to enforce new ener­gy stan­dards on rental hous­ing. The ordi­nance impos­es addi­tion­al red tape and finan­cial bur­dens that experts say will reduce Tree Town’s rental stock, par­tic­u­lar­ly for low-income res­i­dents, and push high rents even high­er.

Land­lords will have to meet a qual­i­fy­ing “Asset Rat­ing” through either a pre­scrip­tive check­list or a third-par­ty ener­gy rat­ing sys­tem before each rou­tine rental inspec­tion. A land­lord who fails to com­ply could be pro­hib­it­ed from obtain­ing or renew­ing a rental license. […]

“While we under­stand the intent behind this ordi­nance, the Washt­e­naw Area Apart­ment Asso­ci­a­tion firm­ly believes it will have far-reach­ing and dev­as­tat­ing con­se­quences for stu­dents, ten­ants, and prop­er­ty pro­fes­sion­als in Ann Arbor,” James Nichols, the organization’s exec­u­tive direc­tor, said in an email.

Cost­ly upgrades required by the ordi­nance will lead to high­er rents, Nichols said. “This will not only hurt ten­ants, but price many stu­dents and ten­ants out of their homes.”

Read the full arti­cle here.