A ‘brilliant’ alternative to rent control for Seattle landlords

KIRO Radio’s John Curley is a landlord who believes citizens have the right to benefit from their own personal investments. But even he thinks something should be done to ensure tenants aren’t slapped with the type of huge, sudden rent hikes popping up around the state.

“That sucks for everybody,” Curley said.

The Seattle Times reported about a small minority of landlords in Washington state who are diverging from the practice of gradual increases to tenants, instead hiking rents of long-time tenants by as much as $1,000 per month to take advantage of the profitable market. There is no limit to how much landlords can bump up rents and city officials are considering ways to fix this because rent control is illegal in Washington.

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City of Seattle residents must be given 60 days notice of a rent change and it’s 30 days outside the city.

Curley generally opposes government intervention on private dealings but he also knows the value of keeping tenants happy. His solution to ensuring tenants receive a fair shake: Extend the rent increase warning at a pro-rated interval.

“Depending on how much you’re going to raise the rent, this is how much more time is given,” he said. “So if you’re going to raise my rent 60 percent, then you’re going to have to give a certain amount of time to fit the basis. So if it’s going up 100 percent, then you get an entire year — or 14 months, or whatever — to give fair warning that the price is going up.”

Co-host Tom Tangney, who sits on the opposite political spectrum, actually agreed with Curley’s idea.

“You know, you ought to run for Seattle City Council — that’s a brilliant proposal,” he said. “I would say most of your people on the Right, at least, wouldn’t be happy about that because you are crimping the free-market system.”

To which Curley responded: “I know, Tom, but I do believe there is a slight difference between hamburgers and homes.”

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