Old Business
Motion to approve November’s minutes: 1st Tom, 2nd Jamie.
Treasurer’s report: we have $1,680.28 currently in our bank account. Outstanding payments are $400 for our Ohio Apartment Association dues and $18.95 for tonight’s speaker gift. Outstanding deposits are $590 and counting of dues received.
Dues are $35 per year. Please pay your 2024 dues to Treasurer Katie Erickson – cash, check (to PO Box 221, Findlay, OH 45839), or PayPal.
New Business
Do we want to renew our Chamber of Commerce membership?
It is $331 annually. Tom Ross has gone to some meetings, and he does not see a lot of value in renewing the membership. Katie Erickson shared that they mailed us a calendar of events for the first quarter.
Does the membership give any discounts? Yes, but only for large businesses. As an individual or a small business, there are no benefits that we can take advantage of.
Tom Miller suggested we do not renew.
Kurt Bishop speaks in favor of membership. We have a reputation for being isolated, so there is value in being part of the larger business community.
Another individual found that most of the engagements were focused on specialty areas and not meetings of the entire group. There may be a quarterly gathering for everyone.
Joe Edinger suggested making a $100 goodwill donation rather than membership.
We voted no; we are not renewing our membership.
Vice President
Tom Ross nominated Ryan Moninger, seconded by Roger Domke.
Ryan is originally from Defiance, and his family has been in the landlord business for many years. He is married, has 4 kids, works at Marathon, and owns a few duplexes here in Findlay.
No one else was nominated, and Ryan was unanimously voted in.
Miscellaneous
New member James Henderson – JMH Heating, Air & Electrical. He has been in business for 30+ years, specializing in service, maintenance, repair, & installation; 419-619-8236.
Come to our Tuesday lunches; the location is emailed out by Tom Miller every Monday.
Motion to adjourn: 1st Joe, 2nd Tom
Water Rates Discussion
The City of Findlay is raising water rates by 50%. They justify it because they haven’t raised the rates for 11 years and the water treatment is 90+ years old. They also want to regionalize water, and they want us to pay for it by raising the water rates, whether we want that or not.
The entire water rate is not doubling; the initial minimum monthly charge has a 50% increase. The basis is doubled so that increases regardless of usage. Everyone gets 2 units of water per month which is included in the base charge rate. That base rate is increasing by 50%. Usage above that is not changing – yet.
Steve Gladman of the Ohio Apartment Association
Steve distributed two handouts, which you can find here and here.
From 1991-2008, he was the executive director of the Columbus Apartment Association, which manages the OAA. The OAA is a federation of local associations like ours – BG, Toledo, Dayton, Muskingum county, Cincinnati, etc. The operating budget is a little over $50k per year. Each association has at least one member on the board of the OAA (larger = more members). Most votes are unanimous. The OAA is only for lobbying, not trade shows, education, etc. We get a favorable rate for the lobbying through a firm in Cleveland, Calfee, Halter, & Griswold LLP. OAA meets by Zoom or in person monthly. We review current legislative activity and what’s going on locally in the different areas. Steve has a background working with financing housing.
Calfee monthly provides a list of bills that are being tracked in the state house and senate. Some are general, some are more specific to property ownership. The OAA is either in favor, opposed, or neutral to bills. Some of those decisions are made by the board, whereas some are obvious. Only 67 bills were passed in 2023, which is lower than average. For reference, Congress only passed 27 bills in 2023.
Findlay is in Senate District 1 and House District 83. Both our senator and representative are currently in leadership. Rob McColley is the Majority Floor Leader and Jon Cross is the Assistant Majority Floor Leader. They pay attention when they get multiple emails from people in their district.
Sometimes bills are introduced that are not ideal for the industry, so the OAA can inform and educate them to change things. Landlords are coming under more scrutiny because the housing market is doing well. There was a bill introduced for rent control, and the Columbus AA allocated $250k for a preventative measure. They put an amendment into the budget bill that only the state of Ohio could implement rent control, not local government. We had a lot of people on our side for this. That same language could carry over into sources of income, security deposits, etc. We have not yet challenged those. When you challenge things, you’re out of luck if you lose, and the court could dismiss it on some other legal issue. Our money is well spent on this!
The general assembly is in office for 2 years. They pass a budget in the first year and then a capital budget in the second year. The low-numbered bills tell you what’s important to leadership.
HB 1 – property, income tax changes. It was very poorly written and very impractical. They are realizing the effect of taxes on citizens and the tax differential rates. There are more and more appeals regarding developments.
There was a bill last year regarding challenging a property’s value regarding taxes. They are also addressing property transfers, specifically regarding LLCs. Out of HB 1, there’s a select committee that is looking at property taxes. They’re looking at how to reduce property taxes for single-family and low-income properties, and then multifamily properties.
The OAA brought up the idea of treating multifamily properties as residential, just like 1-4 family properties. This is the way it was prior to the 1980s, but it changed due to the inflationary rate. There’s inequity in it, but then they realize how much money the schools would lose, and it gets halted.
At each OAA meeting, they discuss each bill on the highlights list. Some of them keep getting reintroduced every year.
Steve expects that not much will happen in the general assembly this year with a primary election coming up. There are 99 House seats (67 Republicans, 32 Democrats) and 33 Senate seats (26 Republicans, 7 Democrats). Why can’t we get anything done? Because they still can’t agree with each other on multiple issues.
Matt Huffman is currently the president of the Senate, but he’s up against his term limit. When people end their time in the Senate, they generally run for the House, and vice versa. He is now going to run for the House and try to be the speaker, even before he gets elected. There’s tension with the current speaker.
The legalization of recreational marijuana is a ballot initiative – a law that can be changed and modified by the general assembly. Matt Huffman wants to modify it greatly, but the House wants to keep it what was voted for by the citizens. The law is currently in effect, though some provisions don’t take effect until later. There are provisions that you can control use on your property, but it must be in your lease. If you have a “no smoking” clause now, it carries over. You cannot say that you can’t possess it because that is legal. The state determines the number of dispensaries, and they want to increase the tax on it. Some say those funds should go to drug addiction facilities. The police department wants all of the funds because they have to get new drug dogs, as the current ones are trained to alert on marijuana.
They will vote tomorrow on overriding the governor’s veto of the transgender legislation.
A recent Ohio Supreme Court case clarified the state’s trespassing law. This may be something that needs to be added to our lease. If you’re addressing how long a person can stay at the property in your lease, you’re fine.
There are provisions that you have to give 30 days’ notice of eviction if your property has a federally insured mortgage. This was put in during the Covid era, and organizations are trying to get that stricken, but the Biden administration likes it. They’re also looking at using AI to glean info regarding rents, which the federal government sees as a monopolistic practice.
There was a recent ruling regarding realtor commissions being fixed.
HB 277 – companion animals in rentals. This would give a tax credit for landlords who allow companion animals in rental dwellings. This would not apply to service animals. Steve says it’s unlikely to pass because the Department of Taxation doesn’t want to deal with that, though the OAA will support it.
Jamie Cunningham: Are the legislators communicating with insurance companies? There used to be 5 breeds of dogs that tenants were not allowed to have. Recently, their insurance company said that they are changing that to not allow any dogs at all! Many companies are losing money every year, so they’re essentially encouraging people to either pay much higher premiums or go somewhere else. Insurance is controlled at the state level. There are substantial increases with taxes and insurance costs both going up.
HB 280 – lead testing. This is driven by money, not HUD or EPA. They now have money to do fixes on properties where lead is found. There is a big push at the national level to replace all drinking water lines that contain lead.
If we see lead or asbestos and call it out, what happens? The owner is responsible for any remediation. If a contractor is addressing it, they are responsible for their work.
SB 150 – prohibit terminating electric, gas service. Is this for rental properties or ownership? If there becomes a 30-day window for eviction, that’s a big problem if we can’t terminate service. There is some discussion regarding this. If a tenant doesn’t pay a municipal utility, the lien goes back on the property owner; this doesn’t apply to gas and electric.
HB 150 – prohibit income housing discrimination. This is regarding Section 8 that you have to accept them. This bill isn’t going to go anywhere because of who’s sponsoring it. Section 8 is changing their inspection in July to be even more restrictive.
Are there any changes coming on how Airbnbs are regulated or taxed? Steve says probably not. There may be a push at the state level to prevent local governments from taking too much control. They have a massive lobbying effort, and they have implemented various regulations, they pay taxes, etc.
Venture capital companies are buying up many single-family houses and taking away opportunities from people who want to purchase their own houses. Mr. Blessing (a senator in Hamilton, OH) is proposing that you can own 5 rentals for free and pay a huge tax on each property after that. He doesn’t understand the business model of landlords.
Landlord registration is already in place in northeast Ohio. Columbus is debating this. Steve’s position is if you want to do a rental tax, do a rental tax, not registration. It’s a licensure relationship. Columbus had $68M in rental assistance money that all came from the federal government. If registration fees are imposed, then that cost would get passed along to tenants through higher rent. But when the economy is really bad, the landlord won’t be able to get the extra rent cost. Pass that cost along to your tenant as a specific fee, and if they don’t like it, contact the people who passed that legislation.
The rent rates are different in different areas – rural vs urban. People complain that our rents are too high, but we’re lower than the state average. There are market forces in play and only so much that we can control.
Tom Miller: A member had a tenant who didn’t have a trash service and had dogs in the property, and the guy disappeared. What can be done at the state level to prosecute someone who leaves that level of damage? Kentucky recently passed a law regarding this. We are working on that, but it’s difficult to get it as a bill and then get passed. This could take years. We are trying to move forward that it is a felony for a tenant who creates a huge amount of damage to a property. We may be able to get this inserted as an amendment on a bill that needs to get passed.
Is there a way that insurance could pay for significant damage to a property? Possibly. There are different ways around this. There can be a provision, but it must be enforceable. Some of the higher-end Airbnbs tack on an extra fee for an insurance policy. If you try to prosecute, the prosecutor generally wouldn’t want to take a case for this.
The current landlord-tenant law doesn’t address when a tenant has voluntarily left the property. If they leave anything on the property, it’s still considered occupied. If you move out a tenant’s property, they can sue you for damage. The advocates have a list of things to fight for tenants, additional limitations on deposits, etc. Jim Gould puts an abandonment clause in his lease, but that doesn’t contradict Ohio landlord-tenant laws.
Ohio tax law is convoluted. Your property value can increase and your taxes can decrease if someone else’s taxes went up way more. The tax burden is causing rents to increase drastically in urban areas.
Steve’s contact info is hzpolicy@gmail.com, 614-286-6002.
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