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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.
News came out recently that Denver is thinking about increasing their fines for landlords that are operating unlicensed rental properties.
John:Someone in a bureaucratic office, you know, seeing, oh, shoot. He hasn't paid yet. 5,000 again. That's now legal for them to do. Hey, everybody.
John:Welcome to another episode of Landlord Lens. In this episode, we get to talk about where we live, which is very exciting. I'm joined by our lovely cohost, Seamus Nalley. Seamus, how are you doing on this fine fall day?
Seamus:Doing fantastic. And I do wanna tell our audience that maybe you don't live in Colorado like we do, but what we're about to talk about, while it is a local situation, is spreading all the across the country.
John:Absolutely. And Denver's not even at the forefront. I mean, you have a place like California, New York, DC. We did an episode on that that has regulations just like the one we just we're we're gonna talk about today.
Seamus:Absolutely. So let me set up the conversation. Yep. News came out recently that Denver is thinking about increasing their fines for landlords that are operating unlicensed rental properties. Yes, that's a thing.
Seamus:You can have an unlicensed rental property. As of 2024, Denver made it implemented a regulation that requires every single landlord of a rental property to get a license.
John:Yes. That's 2024 is every rental. I think a few years before it was only rentals with two plus units. And a few years before it was a general ordinance and recommendation.
Seamus:Exactly. And so like we've seen across the country with these sorts of regulations, right? It's like, you give know, the government a license and all of a sudden it wants to apply to everyone. And so it's definitely gone from something that was, like you said, recommendation to something that's being enforced. And they're really putting teeth behind it.
Seamus:I mean, 5,000 a day for having a violation, which could just be going unlicensed, right? Saying, nah, this isn't for me, is incredible.
John:Someone in a bureaucratic office, you know, seeing, oh, shoot. He hasn't paid yet? 5,000 again.
Seamus:Yes. And then
John:he wakes up tomorrow because of the office. Hasn't paid yet? 5,000 again. Like, that's now legal for them to do.
Seamus:Yeah. I mean, heaven forbid, they find out on, you know, MLK weekend or something that they didn't pay on Friday, and then they're not open again until the following Tuesday. Right? You could you could have racked up $20,000 in fines pretty easily. I know.
Seamus:And while we joke, what's really incredible is when you look at the violations that you could be fined for here in Denver under this license, one is a failure to display a valid license on your listing, right? On an advertisement that it's available. So you post to Facebook Marketplace, let's say, or use a product like Turbo Tenant, which is gonna syndicate out your listing. You have to make sure to add your license number to that description Mhmm. Or you could be fined for every day that that posting is up without a valid license.
John:Which and and that's very common in short term rentals, right, where where licensing became much more normalized in the last five years. You gotta put on your Airbnb listing, your VRBO listing, whatever. That's now made it into long term rentals.
Seamus:Yeah. And it's an easy one if the city wants to enforce because all they have to do is go to the major listing sites.
John:Yep.
Seamus:Type in Denver, right? Colorado, and they're gonna see all the listings pop up and then they can just kinda peruse through and and find a couple targets if they need to boost their their revenue or their their tickets for the month.
John:Exactly. There's an absurdity to this that's hard to ignore, but it's a threat of real pain to landlords. Honestly, reason not to be a DIY landlord in Denver, unfortunately.
Seamus:Yeah, and I think it is important too to talk about, okay, as a landlord, why would you not want a license, right? Okay, licensing's required. Pay the fee, go ahead and get licensed. What's interesting in Denver is you actually need a third party inspection to come with your license. Now, in Fort Collins, I own a rental property, it's a self inspection.
Seamus:So there's no additional cost. It's a $37 fee to file your license. And then you just fill out a checklist basically of do you have set number of things in your rental property? In Denver, they've gone the next step, right? Which is actually, you're gonna have to pay for an inspection to take place on your property.
Seamus:Then you're gonna have to submit those details to the city to have a valid license.
John:Man, so if you're an inspector in Denver, this is good news.
Seamus:Yes, if you're an inspector in Denver, is good news. If you're a remote landlord in Denver, this is just something else you have to coordinate, Right? And and honestly, this just turns some something that maybe cash flowing a couple $100 a month as you build equity value into into a real headache.
John:Yeah. Absolutely. Because it and you you mentioned the Fort Collins One is self inspection at $37. In Denver, you have to pay the certified inspector to get get the inspection. You're likelier to find things you need to fix to get up to code, right, because it's a certified inspector that's gonna sign that thing.
John:And then the other thing is you've got a $100 in fees. You have a $50 application fee and then a $50 rental fee for a single unit. So it's it's much more onerous in Denver than it is in Fort Collins, which, you know, I I guess goes to to the the importance of local lobbying because, obviously, I guess, the landlords in Fort Collins just did a better job.
Seamus:Possibly. We we we tried. I I had an opportunity to talk to some of the city officials when they're thinking about doing this. And my big pushback was, because I asked why they wanna do this, they said they wanted to make sure housing was safe, My pushback was, well, shouldn't housing be safe for everyone, whether it's a rental house or primary residence? Isn't that why we have building codes in general to make sure that there is safe housing out there?
Seamus:And so I asked what they were gonna do for all of us primary residents that weren't being protected by their licensing platform. And what'd they say? You know, it was kind of like, nah, let's not talk about that. Yeah. But I think it's super important.
Seamus:This is what people can do. One, stay aware of what regulations are happening locally, and then be vocal about it. What's fantastic in smaller cities, right? Not as easy in Denver, but in smaller cities, is a handful of vocal residents can really make a difference with some of this legislation to at least push back or even play a role in shaping it so it's less onerous.
John:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's really important is to be active as the small especially in these cases where it goes from regulations being applied to large apartment buildings and gradually hitting the single family person, that maybe is an accidental landlord. It's really important because those big apartments, they employ people to lobby.
John:When you're when you're doing it yourself, you've gotta do it yourself for lobbying too. And so it it's it's often that they it's it's very easy once they have the apartment regulations in place to just map it right over those single family owners that are that are renting it out because what are they gonna do? They're not gonna show up to the council meeting.
Seamus:Yeah. Don't fall into the trap of thinking, hey. This is only gonna impact corporate housing. Yeah. The corporate landlords
John:Clearly, that's not the case.
Seamus:Yeah. Because every one of them bleeds down into into our own our own businesses. Right?
John:So bummer, Denver. You're joining the ranks of Oakland.
Seamus:Yeah. That's, it ain't great and I'd hate to be the person getting that $5,000 a day fine. It'll be really interesting to watch to see if any of those are actually assessed, right? If anyone actually gets those. But what I would love is for anyone in our audience that has licensing in their backyard or where their rental properties are, share in the comments.
Seamus:What is the licensing? How much does it cost? What do the fines look like? I think it's really interesting to understand how licensing initiatives by local municipalities are changing what it means to be a landlord around the country.
John:It's always useful not just to know what's going on in your backyard, but what's going on in the country generally, because a successful regulation somewhere might land in your backyard pretty soon.
Seamus:Awesome. Well, looking for your forward to hearing from all of you in the comments. As always, like and subscribe. Appreciate talking to you today.