This legislative session, local governments are expected to again push Georgia lawmakers to overturn the ban on rental registries.
Rental registries are databases of rental properties that could include details about the units and their owners. Georgia has prohibited cities or counties from requiring landlords to participate in any kind of registry since 2003.
Noah Roenitz of the Georgia Municipal Association, which advocates on behalf of cities in the state, said that local governments are facing a different housing landscape than in the early 2000s.
Increasingly, he said cities and counties are dealing with properties run by investors and out-of-state owners, who may operate under LLCs. He said if local officials need to get ahold of them, the property records do little good.
“How do we get in touch with ABC LLC?” he said, illustrating an example. “Oh, okay, it’s a number out of California. It’s a number out of New York. Nobody answers.”
Roenitz said local governments don’t have the resources to track these owners down and it inhibits their ability to address properties that are in disrepair or in violation of code. It can also delay disaster response efforts, he said, if first responders can’t figure out which homes are occupied.
“At the end of the day, what I think our cities want is somebody to call, whether that is the owner or a registered agent of that property that is going to work to remedy whatever issue it is,” Roenitz said.
But a major group, the Georgia Association of REALTORS, has opposed any effort to allow rental registries in the state.
Advocacy director Betsy Bradfield said she believes such registries violate private property rights. She pointed to a 2004 Marietta law, which was later challenged, that required landlords to obtain rental licenses and subjected tenants to impromptu inspections.
She said if the issue is with LLCs, the state would be better off changing the rules for business registration.
“I just fundamentally disagree that a rental registry is the solution to the problem,” Bradfield said.
Roenitz said most states do not prohibit rental registries and the municipal association isn’t asking Georgia to allow anything that would be burdensome for landlords. The policy has the support of the state Association of County Commissioners and affordable housing advocates.
Last year, legislation to remove the ban on rental registries did not move forward.
