Fort Collins Rental Licensing

(originally published February 10th, 2022. Update at end.)

Good morning folks, 
This morning I completed the new Fort Collins Housing Survey. I will admit I knew little about the “Housing Strategic Plan” before today, and based on the survey and the provided information, the wheels are already in motion for implementation. Check it out here: https://www.fcgov.com/housing/rental-housing-strategies

If this humble [blog post] were instead a YouTube video, the thumbnail would definitely be a picture of me with my hands in the air and a comic book bubble overhead saying “The City Wants Landlords To Do WHAT?!?!?”*

As part of The Plan, the city wants to mandate licensing for rental properties, with inspections taking place in an as-yet-to-be-determined interval. Who would be doing the inspections is another unknown factor, and the costs remain up in the air. However, some of the proposed fees are:

• Flat rate per unit (e.g., $50/unit)
• Tiered rate per unit (e.g., $50/unit for the first 50 units and $15 for each additional unit)
• Flat rate per property (e.g., $300/rental property)
• A combination of per unit and per property fees (e.g., $150/rental property and $15/unit)

These were in a multiple choice question, as in, “Which of these fees sounds most appealing?” At the risk of sounding haughty, the fees aren’t necessarily the issue, although I’m sure they will be scorned by the landlords at which this plan is directly aimed. I can picture the city council meetings now. Of somewhat greater concern is the training the city would like to implement for landlords, property managers and tenants. Tenants. The city is considering training tenants. Insert your joke about higher rents here.

I applied for the task force. My knee-jerk reaction was to infiltrate the group and dismantle it, Ron Swanson-style. However, I think it’s important to act as an ambassador of sorts on behalf of the many friends/clients I know with rental properties. It’s unclear if property managers or the owners would be on the hook for the licensing costs; one would assume all of that would be negotiable between those parties. Also unclear is what exactly the city will be looking for in terms of inspections. I’d like to think most of you (and me) would have little to worry about in terms of these inspections as it’s supposedly intended to go after the “bad actors” in our area. 

U+2 is addressed in The Plan, which I’d like to hear from you all about since I’m firmly in Camp Overhaul. If you have time I would urge you to take the survey, linked above. Trust me, I don’t love the idea of attending the task force meetings (if they select me) but if I do land the gig I would want as much input from rental owners - and renters - as possible.

Finally, as a previously promised palette cleanser here’s a reminder to change your furnace filter and a pretty bomb recipe for spiced cider.

Have a good day - Crip


Update, 2-23-2002

Today the Fort Collins Board of Realtors issued the position statement below regarding the proposed licensing. 

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