Portland City Council Voted to Amend Fair Access In Renting Ordinance (FAIR)

Multifamily NW reports the Portland City Council has amended the Fair Access in Renting Ordinance (FAIR) to settle a February 2022 lawsuit brought against the city to invalidate FAIR on the grounds that the ordinance violates both the Oregon and U.S. constitutions.

Commissioner Dan Ryan initiated negotiations with the lawsuit's legal team to seek a compromise, and a final vote to approve the negotiated amendments was held on June 29th. 

The resulting changes expected to come into effect in 30 days include: 

• Applications and Screening: Applicants who have successfully appealed a housing provider's denial of their application for a unit that has since become unavailable were previously entitled to prequalification for rental opportunities at any of the housing provider's properties (with no geographic restrictions). The amendment restricts this prequalification requirement to the provider's properties only within the city of Portland. 
  
  
• Security Deposits:  The requirement for housing providers to use a depreciation schedule published by the Portland Housing Bureau to allocate the value of any item for which a housing provider deducts the cost of repairs or replacements from a security deposit.
  
  While housing providers must still include in the rental agreement a “Unit inventory” and “Unit Condition Report” itemizing all fixtures, appliances, equipment, or personal property that would require deduction from the security deposit to repair or replace, the depreciated value is no longer required on those forms.
  
  See MultifamilyNW.org for examples of items that should be listed in these categories. 
  
  
• Repair or Replacement of Flooring Material: Housing Providers are no longer required to calculate the size of the “discrete impacted area” when charging for the cleaning of flooring material and may charge for the cleaning of flooring material as permitted by state law.
  
  
• Unit Condition Reports: Housing providers and renters must agree to sign a Unit Condition Report detailing the condition of all fixtures, appliances, equipment, or personal property that would require a deduction from the security deposit to repair or replace. Following the recently approved amendments, the procedures for the required use of Unit Condition Reports have been significantly altered.
  
  See MultifamilyNW.org for detailed information about the changes and the new procedures for Unit Condition Reports.  
  
  Housing providers are also still required to update the condition report following repair or replacement of any item listed, but information regarding the depreciated value of those items is no longer required.
  
  
• Damages for Violation of FAIR: Housing provider penalties for failing to comply with the security deposit requirements of FAIR have been reduced from double the security deposit to an amount up to $250 per violation (plus actual damages, reasonable attorney fees, and costs).

Multifamily NW has scheduled webinar training on the FAIR Ordinances settlement amendments on Thursday, July 7th from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. 

Visit MultifamilyNW.org for detailed information about the changes. 

This article is not intended as legal advice. Please obtain the advice of an attorney for any policy changes or decisions regarding residential and commercial landlord-tenant matters.