Holcomb vetoes controversial landlord-tenant legislation

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13 thoughts on “Holcomb vetoes controversial landlord-tenant legislation

  1. Gov. Holcomb made a correct decision. Each locale is unique unto itself as to the needs and require ments for housing.
    I applaud Gov.Holcomb.

    Jim Guy

  2. As a longtime landlord I was opposed to the Marion County ordinance. It has major flaws. As a citizen, I applaud the governor for vetoing the bill which unnecessarily infringed on the rights of local communities to regulate their own affairs. In the long run Marion County’s ordinance will drive the small landlords out of the market which is bad for tenants and bad for the economy.

    1. As a fellow landlord, please explain one thing to me? How exactly does this hurt you? If you already keep your property well maintained and give tenants decent living conditions, this law shouldn’t effect you.

  3. Property owners and small business owners always get short stick with Indiana legislature…Regardless of all the partisanship being promoted …The small guy gets screwed ..Everytime !

    1. Are tenants not also the “small guys?” Or, does only the landed gentry fall into that category?

      And, how does this veto “screw” landlords? (And, I think your ire is directed at the Governor, not the Legislature).

      Unless you are a slumlord, the Marion County tenant protection ordinance should not have any great impact on you. New York, LA, San Francisco, DC, and many jurisdictions in Maryland and New Jersey have rent control along with strict tenant protections, and many other places without rent control still have very strict tenant protections. Marion County has rather weak tenant protections even with its new ordinance.

  4. Nice Job. This topic deserves public input, and not just lobbyists input. State legislators rammed this through without any public input and if it is worth doing, then it will be worth doing again next year, but AFTER it gets a little input. Like a lot of legislation, state lawmakers are too quick to ram it through just to spite Indiana’s urban areas.

  5. I had mixed emotions about this bill. It is already very difficult to evict tenants who are not paying rent. By the time the tenants are evicted they have had plenty of time to destroy the rental and they often do. Local laws that make it harder to evict non-paying tenants will only drive up rental rates. On the other hand, I’m tired of the legislature taking away the ability of localities to make and enforce laws that their residents want. On balance, I’m glad he vetoed the bill.

  6. The Indianapolis ordinance is horribly flawed, was never thought thru, never written with any kind of research other then a totally outdated Eviction Lab report, and listening to every organization EXCEPT a reputable property management company, on their point of view. I personally brought a few flaws and oversights to the city attorney, who agreed totally with what I was saying and understood how and why it needed to be corrected, yet he TOTALLY ignored getting the language corrected. I am all for getting the slumlords to straighten up, but again, the majority of evictions are due to tenants not paying rent (see IU’s report of October 2019, where they dug into the “why” tenants are evicted in most cases). The city ordinance will do NOTHING to curb slumlords……bad landlords will be bad landlords. That said, if the city is going to use the FAILED Landlord Registry, and Business and Neighborhood Services to collect data on who is who on properties, do their audits, etc., then they better do something to get it right, and start enforcing it. If not, only the landlords who register, as they should, will be subject to the audits and fines thereof. FYI…..slumlords don’t register. After being a landlord for over 35 years, of single family homes, that are in pristine condition, all close or in the downtown area, I have NEVER seen an ordinance come out of the city for landlord/tenant as poorly written as this one. Make all the rules you want, but all you are doing is forcing me to add yet more language in my lease, and forcing me to put even tighter criteria on tenant approvals. Both of which will do nothing to serve the population you are trying to help. I fear the next thing the city will do is rent control……that happens, I’m out.

  7. I have not read the details, since I am not a renter or a landlord, but my brother had experience in another state, and there was a state law that allowed him to check references of people wanting to rent, specifically there was a state wide searchable public records database of anyone who had eviction proceedings against them, and by the opposite token, it was searchable by landlords for renters complaints as well. This made it easier for everyone to keep from getting in a bad situation.

    Again, I don’t mind a statewide law as long as it has public input and not just lobbyist input. If it is a good issue this year to tackle, it will be a good issue next year to tackle.

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