Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to The Landlord Lens, your guide to navigating the rental market in real time.
Whether you're a first-time landlord or managing multiple properties, this series unpacks how today’s headlines, legislation, and economic shifts are impacting landlords like you. From rising interest rates to rent control debates, we break down what’s happening right now and what it means for your rentals. You’ll get straight talk on eviction laws, housing supply, corporate ownership trends, and tenant movements shaping the landscape.
We’ll help you make sense of complex policy changes, avoid legal landmines, and respond strategically to the forces reshaping the rental world. The Landlord Lens gives you the context and clarity you need to stay informed, stay compliant, and stay profitable in a market that never stops moving.
Let’s get into it.
A lot of these laws are obviously outdated or still on the books, not repealed, but none of them care about how reasonable you think you're being.
Speaker 2:When's the last time this was actually enforced? $57,000 in damages awarded. Quit.
Speaker 1:Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Landlord Lens. I love these kinds of episodes, Seamus. We're gonna have a little fun.
Speaker 2:I'm super excited. It's a good way to start 2026. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Talking about weird laws. Across The US, there are a bunch of strange laws at the municipal level, at the state level, sometimes at the federal level about what you can or cannot do with your property. And we're gonna dive into a selection of those today that are particularly eyebrow raising. Awesome. So what's law number one on the doggett?
Speaker 1:Law number one is something called spite fences. Spite fence. Have you ever heard of the term spite fence?
Speaker 2:No. Not at all.
Speaker 1:Okay. Well, in Rhode Island and California, it is illegal to have a fence of a certain height. Okay. So in Rhode Island, if your fence is taller than six feet, that can be classified as a spite fence, and you can have fines levied against you. And in California, the legal line is drawn at 10 feet for the definition of a spike fence.
Speaker 1:And again, you can be found liable for damages if you build a spike fence on your property.
Speaker 2:Incredible. And one of the things that we looked up ahead of this when we heard about spike fence is like, when's the last time this was actually enforced? And we're gonna go back to 2011 where a row of trees in the beautiful state of California was considered spite fence trees.
Speaker 1:Yes. Spite fence trees.
Speaker 2:And they had to be trimmed and there was $57,000 in damages awarded.
Speaker 1:In twenty eleven dollars.
Speaker 2:In in twenty eleven dollars. Exactly. So that's gotta be over 300,000 in today's inflated market.
Speaker 1:Terrible. Okay. We have another about fencing. Alright? This one is it's coming out of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1:They made it illegal to have white picker fences.
Speaker 2:Do you know why, John?
Speaker 1:I have no idea. Yeah. I mean, it it seems aesthetic historic zoning rules because it's an old town. But
Speaker 2:I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's because there's get all snow in Pennsylvania. Right? And so I bet from time to time, the fence gets covered in the snowdrift and snowplows run into it.
Speaker 1:Oh, you think?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Has that happened? Because you grew you grew up in a snowy place.
Speaker 2:Growing up, yeah, we lost a series of household pets in snowbanks that we'd find when they thawed in the spring. Okay.
Speaker 1:Alright. You think it's snow related? This this is saying it might be aesthetic or historic.
Speaker 2:Oh, that that could be the case as well.
Speaker 1:Alright. What's number three, Seamus?
Speaker 2:Number three is the two toilet maximum. This is a really interesting one, and it's very specific to the Waldron Island, which is in Washington, and you're not allowed to have a property with more than two toilets.
Speaker 1:That would be terrible as as a living condition if you have more than, what, two, three people living there. And and I'd also call out what's weird about this is that's at the property level.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:It's not at the rental unit level.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you definitely don't wanna have a multiunit property. This
Speaker 1:Don't share a toilet.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Because you thought a studio was bad. Imagine renting an apartment where you get half a toilet, right? Oh yeah. To utilize, but it's for really good reason.
Speaker 2:They're trying to preserve drinking water, the fresh water on the island. So imagine going to, you know, fill up your coffee maker for your your morning cup of joe, and nothing comes out because someone across town has flushed all four of their toilets.
Speaker 1:Number four. So this one is right in our backyard kinda, Boulder, Colorado. So you can't have upholstered furnitures outdoors on properties in Boulder, Colorado. This one seems like it would be I'm surprised in Boulder, Colorado, there are other places where bugs are a larger problem. That's why they did it, was bugs.
Speaker 2:So I've heard bugs. I've also heard though, because there was a time in Boulder where a lot of the college students were lighting couches and stuff on fire. What? It represented a fire hazard in Boulder, Colorado. I mean, it would technically everywhere, but not everyone else has gone ahead and created a law for it.
Speaker 1:So in order to control the impulsive college students from setting upholstered things on fire, they just said move the furniture indoors, and that would they would stop doing the fires if it was indoors?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, no one wants to burn their own belongings. Right? They just wanna have a good time around a loveseat on fire.
Speaker 1:Okay. This next one is about exterior burglar bars. You've probably seen them walking around a normal neighborhood, burglar bars on some windows.
Speaker 2:Don't see a lot of them in Fort Collins. I I
Speaker 1:guess that's fair. I've got burglar bars at my house.
Speaker 2:Good idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's it's good. It makes me feel safer.
Speaker 2:Excellent. What's really interesting about this this law in Mississippi though is you can't have them on the outside. Yeah. But you can still have them on the inside. So if you're trying to keep someone in, don't worry.
Speaker 2:You can still go full penitentiary.
Speaker 1:So this law was apparently passed. If I saw this, I would think, oh, maybe this seems like a seventies law, crime wave, whatever. 1996.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And what's really great is if you installed your burglar bars before 1996, you're grandfathered in.
Speaker 1:You get to keep them.
Speaker 2:You get to keep them. I don't know what you exactly have to do to prove that you had installed them before '96. What happens if one Rossin has to be replaced? All things for Richland, Mississippi to figure out. This next law is near and dear to my heart, but that is that there's no DIY, so do it yourself work on Sundays.
Speaker 2:And that's in New Jersey, Schenectady, New York, Hawaii, and then Santa Fe has this on the books as well.
Speaker 1:So this is exterior painting, roofing, like anything having to do with your house, you've gotta plan a different day to do it than one of the two days of the weekend.
Speaker 2:Sunday is a day of rest unless, of course, you're paying someone else to do the work. In which case, in all of these locations, no law on the books that we're aware of.
Speaker 1:This is a law in Aspen, which is located in the most expensive county in Colorado. Snowballs, you cannot throw them at people, vehicles, or property in public or private spaces. So no snowball fights even in your backyard.
Speaker 2:Snowball fights are also legal across every elementary school in The United States, I believe. Is that true? Yes. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I think you're lying.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I don't know that to be the case. I do know that a number of kids, maybe myself included, got in school suspension for throwing snowballs, but just at each other and teachers. Never never cars.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Never cars. Never cars. Only humans. Law number eight, limits on unrelated roommates.
Speaker 1:So in New York City, you have a limit of the number of unrelated individuals to live together, And this apparently is related back to old tenements where you have rooms renting out by the room to to six, seven, eight people at a time who were working in the industrial revolution.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this is one of those laws that I do actually think has some real serious repercussions, just like a lot of occupancy limit laws, where it reduces the affordability of housing, right? The less people that can live in one building together, the more people you have out on the market trying to find housing. So it just pushes prices up.
Speaker 1:It apparently is also used when other eviction laws fail. So it's still being used pretty frequently today. Even even if that's not the reason for the eviction, they'll they'll use this as the as the the the reason to go through the courts. This is also about New York City, and it's livestock and chicken. So in Brooklyn and then you can imagine Brooklyn.
Speaker 1:Right? It's a bunch of, you know, multistory buildings and hubbub, lots of people around. Right? Cattle and pigs are permitted in some areas if properly fenced.
Speaker 2:Yes. But roosters, geese, and ducks are not allowed.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:So no birds. Yeah. They're outright banned. And my guess, having been in Brooklyn several times, is the amount of properly fenced areas is pretty darn minimal because I've never seen any cattle or pigs in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1:Well, that's because they're properly fenced and hidden.
Speaker 2:Good point. They're probably behind what would be considered a spite fence in
Speaker 1:Yeah. Or California or Rhode Island. That's right. Okay. This next one is about female roommate limits.
Speaker 1:Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, there are limits on the number of female roommates in a particular unit. Yeah. And this goes back to anti brothel laws. So these are very old laws.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's gotta be very hard for the sorority houses in these given states. But, yeah, just an interesting law on the books. Looking at it, there hasn't been a lot of enforcement of this law, which makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1:Okay. Alright. Pennsylvania, 16. Okay. That's a very high number.
Speaker 1:It feels like not a lot of houses are gonna fall in there. Tennessee, eight. Well, that's half of it. Ohio is five. Five women can't live together.
Speaker 2:Can you imagine having that sixth daughter and just uh-oh. Uh-oh. I mean, I guess it's a really good reason to build an ADU.
Speaker 1:So a lot of these laws are obviously outdated or still on the books, not repealed. Some are rarely enforced. We noted some that aren't and are enforced pretty frequently. But none of them care about how reasonable you think you're being in your behavior out there. What was your favorite one?
Speaker 2:Honestly, I think I'm gonna go back to the spite fences. I just love the idea of anything you do to antagonize your neighbor, especially that row of trees.
Speaker 1:That is an absurd one. A row of trees that they had to cut and finance and then pay $56,000 is
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a lot
Speaker 2:of money. It's wild. I'm sure though some of our audience out there has run into some of these obscure laws. We would love to know if you've ever come into contact with any, especially if they've been enforced. So please sound off in the comments below as to the strange laws in your area.
Speaker 1:Yeah, please do. And like and subscribe. We'll see you guys next week for another episode of Landlord Lens.