Landlords
It’s a fact that it’s hard to find a place to rent these days. St. George is virtually OUT of rentals, and despite all the high rises going up in SLC, we too have a huge shortage of housing. You may not have ever heard of the Utah Apartment Assn. unless you’re a landlord. According to their website they have over 3,500 members representing more than 75,000 apartments throughout Utah. You would probably be a member if you were an owner, manager, developer or builder of apartments because they really do offer some terrific benefits to both the one and multi-unit owner.
The non-profit group was founded in 1934 as the Apartment Assn. of Utah-84 years ago. The National Apartment Association is only 75 years old which to me indicates Utah was ahead of the pack in helping to assist owners and managers in the last century here. Why would a RENTER care about this group?
- Their website (uaagq.org) does connect you to rentals.com, forrent.com, utahrealestate.com, and rentler.com;
- Gives help line/phone numbers for tenants having problems with landlords, including Salt Lake Community Action, 2-1-1 information, Disability Law Center and Utah State Courts;
- Directs veterans to specific resources for them;
- And free forms for tenants to: a) give a landlord a notice to vacate/move out, give notice of a deficient condition, a reasonable accommodation request due to health issues, and a tenant request form to the landlord to provide deposit deposition/return of deposit.
For owners currently renting out property(s) or wanting to become a landlord, they offer a live ‘Good Landlord’ class throughout the state. Not heard of that? Well, if you as a wanna be or current landlord agree to evict problem tenants immediately and keep their properties ‘clean and green’ and in compliance with local housing codes you can possibly get a discount on licensing fees. As an example, Salt Lake City will discount a participant’s business license fee from $342 per unit to $322 per unit. This incentive is intended to educate landlords on management strategies to prevent crime, maintain equity and promote compatibility with surrounding neighborhoods.
South Salt Lake City says on their website that ‘the City has found that landlords who follow best management practices on background checks, tenant leases, crime prevention, and eviction procedures as necessary reduce the service costs borne by South Salt Lake taxpayers. Like many other cities in the state, South Salt Lake requires landlords to maintain a current business license for their rental(s), attend a class every few years on being a good landlords, use a written lease for every unit they rent out with all adults living in the unit listed on the lease, that all adults will have background checks done by the landlord in advance of leasing, protocols for crime prevention on the property will be followed via ‘Crime Prevention through Environmental Design’ and that the landlord agrees to maintain the rental dwelling(s) in a fit and habitable condition as required by State and relevant building, fire and land use codes.
