JACKSON HOLE, WYO – As expected, the town council at this afternoon’s workshop buttoned up verbiage on an ordinance making it law that landlords provide tenants, at minimum, 30-day notice that a lease will not be renewed.
The ordinance is the end result of efforts Mayor Pete Muldoon said he would make top priority when he took office last January.
“Wyoming has some of the worst tenant protections in the nation,” Muldoon stated by email late last year. “We should live up to our ideals and lead the state in passing a tenant-protection ordinance.”
Muldoon and council found numerous stumbling blocks on the way to championing the rights of renters, most of which included unintended consequences of potential ordinances that would actually deter many would-be landlords from renting out their properties. Difficulties in enforcement of any new ordinances was a deterrent as well. Also, the council found that state statute did already provide tenants in Wyoming certain rights, protections, and recourse, and any municipal ordinance could not supersede those in most cases.
A taskforce headed by Shelter JH provided a list of six regulatory areas where potential tenant protection tools could be drafted and applied. Further discussion in the fall of 2017 revealed a list of seven identified issues the council was considering action on in terms of tenant protections. Of those, the council ultimately settled on only a 30-day heads up on any eviction notice or lease nonrenewal.
Brenda Wylie, legal representation for Blair Place Apartments, voiced her client’s concern over the proposed ordinance, saying it wasn’t ready in its current form. Her main objections were the excessive fine allowed ($750 per day, per incident).
It could result in up to $22,000 in fines for multiple unit landlords, Wiley said. She also thought a “with cause” provision should include a scenario that would allow a landlord to remove a tenant in the event of unexpected property damage rather than allow them to remain in a unit for 30 days or face fines.
Councilman Bob Lenz said he preferred a 50-day notice to 30. Muldoon agreed but was resigned to making at least some “important first step” toward drafting protections for tenants in Jackson.
Councilman Don Frank couldn’t get there at all, saying, “This cake needs baked a little more.”
The ordinance passed 3-2 with Lenz and Frank opposed. It will be read three times over the course of the next two months beginning at the September 5 meeting, and will become law by this fall.
