Bend landlords say state’s pandemic protections for tenants add to their struggles

Landlords say current regulations are not fair, they may sell properties

(Update: Comments from apartment manager, rental property owners)

BEND, Ore (KTVZ) -- Some Bend landlords say they are facing serious challenges as a result of added tenant protections amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several landlords say it's worsened a situation in which state landlord-tenant Laws lean too much in the favor of tenants.

They've expressed that ever since the pandemic began and renter protections against eviction were increased, they're getting taken advantage of.

A commonly voiced concern is that there are no real repercussions when property is damaged, and it's virtually impossible to evict tenants.

Others have questioned the credibility of the rental screening process that landlords must practice.

The acting general manager for Eagle Landing Apartments, Christine Larson, said that when it comes to the screening process, many tenants falsify their information.

Some of the experiences Larson said she has had to deal with involve drug addicts on her property that she could not rightfully evict because of renter protections. Others involve tenants choosing not to pay rent, or for damages they caused.

"The Oregon Legislature has over-regulated everything towards the renters' side, which is affecting our running a business, and our ability to run a business," Larson said Monday.

"We have had several people, as everybody in rentals, and I‘m also talking about single-family (homes) that have chosen not to pay the rent," she said. "And the Legislature keeps on pushing it out, pushing it out, pushing it out. We have a mortgage, we have insurance, we have a lot of costs, and COVID has actually cost us a lot of money.”

Larson also points out that in the state of Oregon, landlords must accept the first qualified tenant. Though the intent is to eliminate bias, Larson recounts a situation where she rented a home, which was non-smoking. She had to forego offering the rental to a working family she met later that evening because a group of five people she identified smoking in their vehicles showed up first.

She said they didn't have any consistent form on income, but due to the criteria of the landlord-tenant laws, she had to rent to them regardless, because they qualified.

With the added struggles landlords have been facing, some say they feel prompted to sell their rental properties, to avoid problems with tenants altogether.