Exploring rental registries across U.S. localities

When the registry began in 2017, owners were only required to submit contact information for themselves and the building manager. However, when a citizen referendum implemented rent control in 2020, the city began requiring that owners submit information relevant to rent control as part of their registration, including unit-level information on base rent, recent rent increases, the amount of the security deposit, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and whether the unit has a kitchen.

The licensing coordinator, rent control coordinator, and licensing and housing safety manager are key figures responsible for maintaining the rental registry. The majority of the registry’s operating expenses are included in the Permitting and Inspection Department’s budget since these staff members also oversee other licensing programs. However, the salaries of the department’s four housing safety inspectors are specific to the rental registry, and the registration fees are used to fund their salaries.

Outcomes and discussion

Since the registry’s launch, the Permitting and Inspections Department has inspected about 25 percent of registered units annually to achieve improved housing quality. Additionally, emergency responders rely on the information in the registry to get in touch with building staff and account for the reported number of residents in a building in case of an emergency.

The city estimates that approximately 80 percent of owners have complied with the rental registry. Staff indicated that smaller landlords may lack the administrative capacity to comply and that the non-compliance rate increased after rent control began in 2020, likely because the rental registry now collects significantly more information. 

Once a unit is registered, a landlord receives automated yearly invoices for their registration fee. To help ensure new landlords are aware of the registry, the city conducts outreach via quarterly newsletters and stakeholder meetings. All landlords or their designated property managers are also required to take a one-time rental business training course led by the city. This 3-to-4-hour course covers inspections, nuisance abatement, housing rights, and landlord-tenant law. This training is offered online, which has facilitated a high completion rate among landlords and property managers. 

To register their properties, landlords must provide contact information for the property owner and manager and information on the property type (e.g., family, duplex, or multifamily). Rental unit inspections are also a central component of the registry. Code inspectors visit Cedar Rapids’ approximately 21,000 rental units once every three years on a staggered schedule. Registration fees cover about half of the registry’s operating costs, with the remainder covered by general revenue. The data collected by inspectors is entered into an online database and shared with the fire and police departments. The registry makes information about complaints filed against landlords in the last year publicly available via an interactive map, and residents can submit complaints against a landlord using the same website. In addition, citizens can file an open records request to receive information about previous inspections.

Outcomes and discussion

Since the registry program began, more than 3,650 landlords and property managers have completed the rental business training course. Currently, more than 6,000 properties are registered, many of which include multiple units, and the program identified 175 unregistered properties in 2023. Additionally, during inspections of registered properties, rental housing inspectors cited thousands of smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarm violations. Since implementing the program, the city has received fewer complaints from tenants, including a reduction in calls reporting inadequate heating. The city worked directly with a local landlord group to explain and roll out the program and involved the group in the process of amending the property management code. Registry staff recommended that other cities establish collaborative relationships with landlords and property managers to create buy-in for the rental registry.

As of 2023, the city used an online registration system that allows landlords to register properties, upload required documents, monitor the status of their registration, and receive invoices for registration fees. This streamlined system is used across various departments, meaning that other offices can use the data for purposes like helping relocate tenants in the event of a fire. The registry, which has traditionally been maintained by two full-time staff members, provides the city with data on the number and location of rental units, vacancy rates, and ownership information. 

Outcomes and discussion

In recent years, the city has seen annual increases in registrations. As of 2019, roughly 900 properties with five or more units had registered, but due to the registry staff’s consistent efforts to conduct outreach to landlords, the city is now receiving around 1,600 registrations per year. In line with increased registration, revenue from the program has almost tripled since 2019. City officials use tax data to identify properties with five or more units that have not completed their mandatory registration. They also send letters to the landlords and issue fines of between $200 and $2,000 per day until the registration is received. If landlords do not respond to the letter, the city issues a summons and transfers the case to the municipal prosecutor. 

City staff support landlords through the registration process by creating guides and step-by-step instructions. They advised that understanding the needs of city residents and proactively meeting those needs helps keep the program running smoothly and that rental registration is a citywide effort that spans municipal departments.  

To register a unit, landlords must provide tenant names and email addresses, as well as information on current rent and the initial rent charged when the current tenant moved in, the date and amount of the last rent increase, the amount of the security deposit, and which utilities are included with the rent and which are metered. Updated information is required annually. If landlords do not have this information, they must make a good-faith effort to obtain it by speaking with tenants and referencing public records. If this process does not yield the required information, the landlord may mark the relevant section as unknown or submit an estimate. Landlords who do not register by the annual deadline cannot impose rent increases, respond to tenant petitions, or legally evict tenants. There is no registration fee, as landlords with units covered by the rental registry already pay an annual RAP fee. The RAP fee funds the salary of the project manager who oversees the registry.

Outcomes and discussion

When discussing the establishment of a new rental registry, city staff highlighted a number of challenges. Firstly, the city lacked a complete inventory of its housing units and important data points such as the year of construction. While attempting to compile a list of properties required to register, the city utilized data from the county assessor, only to discover that many of these properties were owner-occupied. Based on this experience, city staff recommended basing housing inventories on city data, rather than county-level data, since city data is more likely to be accurate. Other challenges included the absence of a spreadsheet-based multi-unit upload option at the initial launch for properties with multiple units, although this option has now been made available. Lastly, there was an administrative burden associated with entering information for properties that registered via paper forms, an option offered by the city for landlords who may not be comfortable completing online forms.

City staff reported that the registry’s internal goal for its first year of operation was to have 60 percent of applicable properties (those the city believed to be rentals based on their data analysis) registered. As of December 2023, approximately 50 percent of properties were registered. Because the registry was only established recently, the city has not yet formally analyzed its data, but staff said they were able to fulfill all the Public Records Act requests they received in the registry’s first year. Moving forward, the city aims to make more of the rental registry’s data publicly available and create a portal for tenants to conveniently access registry information.

The rental registry covers buildings with four or more units, totaling about 10,000 units. Landlords self-report data to the registry and pay a fee of $5.25 per unit. This fee supports the registry but does not fully cover its cost. Landlords must provide their contact information and, for each unit, details including the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, parking spaces, square footage, lease start and end dates, as well as the rent amount.

Registration for the rental registry takes place annually during a window from June 1 to July 1. If landlords fail to register by July 31st, the city sends them notices. If they still do not respond, the city issues late fees before sending landlords to an internal collection process. If landlords continue to be non-compliant, misdemeanor fines ranging from $100 to $1,000 per unit may be issued. In 2023, 17 percent of landlords were noncompliant with the registry. The registry is maintained by a team of two staff members, but the city also contracts with an outside company for the collections process and the software used to collect registry data.

Outcomes and discussion

Registry data are presented to Concord’s City Council in an annual report that highlights data on evictions and average rents. The council uses the report to create policy, such as the recent rent stabilization program. Notably, city staff said that comparisons between the eviction data collected by the registry and by tenant advocacy groups suggest that the registry’s data on evictions is not always accurate, likely because landlords self-report and may be motivated to underreport their eviction rates. 

The city faced some backlash to the registry from landlords, who were reluctant to provide the required information. City staff recommended that other cities considering implementing rental registries be prepared for resistance from landlords and set aside time daily to respond to landlords’ concerns. They also emphasized that setting up a registry is a very time-intensive process and that having a designated staff member focusing on the registry is helpful. Staff expressed interest in gathering data from landlords continuously to track and understand seasonal patterns and obtain real-time data, but they acknowledged that implementing such a program would be prohibitively expensive due to the substantial amount of effort involved.