So the city put a moratorium on new rentals for six months and study the possibility of changing ordinances regarding rentals.
“There are some issues of property management, where rental properties are being managed by property management, which in our experience, all they ever did was collect a rent check,” said council member Brad Delfs. “They did nothing to help us as a city, which was to manage code enforcement to help out. I blame the property management company more than I do the tenants, for the most part.”
The moratorium drew the attention of governmental affairs staff at the St. Paul Area Association of Realtors, who began a series of informational campaigns warning that the moratorium would harm property owners’ rights in the city. The association paid for phone calls to residents, mailers, and even used “patch-through calls” to send callers to city council members’ voice mails if the residents told the association they were opposed to the moratorium.
“We don’t want this to be anything adversarial (with the city),” said SPAAR President Patrick Ruble. “What we’re concerned with is, in our view, does it infringe on personal property rights with regard to how someone uses their property? That’s our concern–that owners don’t have the ability to use the property as they wish.”
Delfs said the city wants to look at the current ordinance, the current city codes (standards for property maintenance and upkeep), and even crime statistics in relation to rental properties to see if there are changes in terms of new ordinances.
“Our responsibility, first and foremost, is to our citizens. We don’t have any duty or responsibility to the St. Paul area realtors,” said Delfs. “We want to make sure, too–we don’t want to trample on anybody’s property rights. We don’t want to trample on anybody’s rights.”
Ruble and the realtors association said the aim remains to stand up for its 7,400 Twin Cities real estate professionals and for all those who own property or are interested in doing so, especially in economically uncertain times.
“Some people have a business model that they invest in properties and rent. Some people have may have the need to rent out,” said Ruble. “We firmly believe and stand behind the right of individual property ownership and the ability to transfer that ownership to use that property in the way they need to use it.”
The city will continue to study the issue and to answer questions from property owners and residents.
“In this time of this virus pandemic, everything takes longer. It just does,” said Delfs, who confirmed the moratorium may be extended. “A lot of people contacted us, and wanted clarification, which we gave them.”
