A Few Year-end COROA Updates

 A few months ago I wrote about a new City of Bend ordinance affecting some utilities serving rental properties. Several people have called me expressing confusion about what the ordinance actually says, so here it is again in a nutshell: the City of Bend is having trouble collecting sewer fees from houses that are served by Bend City sewer but not Bend City water. For example, some houses are on Avion or Roats water systems, and are hooked up to city sewer. The City of Bend does not have the ability to shut the sewer off for non-payment and can’t shut the water off from another utility to try and force payment.

 When we met with the city about this, they said they will put a lien on the property for unpaid utilities, meaning we owners will have to pay for our tenants’ bills. We told them that we could deduct the money owed from our tenants’ deposit if the city would notify us within 30 days of the tenant vacating, but the city said they can’t do that. The result would be that owners receive a lien notice from the city for unpaid sewer bills long after the tenant is gone. The only other option is to place the utilities in the owner’s name and add the sewer amount to the rent. Remember, this applies only to those specific properties that have city sewer but not city water. This affects a very small number of properties and I hope this clears up any confusion.       

 Another thing I would like to talk about is the COROA forms. My wife and I were shopping at an office supply store when I spotted the forms that they sell ranging from divorce to bankruptcies to tenant and rental issues. These forms are not state specific, meaning they are one-size-fits-all. I strongly encourage you to buy your forms from our organization for a couple of reasons: 1)They are written to comply with Oregon law. Generic forms sometimes don’t use the correct language and in some cases are completely wrong, so if you do end up in court with a generic form that doesn’t apply to Oregon law, you could lose your case. 2) Our form sales help fund COROA, keeping the yearly dues low and allowing us to provide great classes. Also, the form sales support ORHA, our parent organization, which spends a lot of money representing landlord concerns in the legislature and protecting us from strong tenant rights groups. ORHA writes and produces those forms at considerable cost. The forms are copyrighted, so please don’t copy them.

 The last thing I want to talk about is this year’s annual rental survey. Soon you will be receiving the survey in the mail. This year with all the financial uncertainty and trying to figure out what to do next, this survey could provide some very valuable information regarding rental trends and vacancies. The more of you who respond to the survey, the more accurate it will be.  Please, please, please, when you get your survey fill it out and stick in the mail and plan to attend the COROA annual dinner to see the results so you can make sound decisions in the future.

 Have a Prosperous and Happy New Year

See you next month!

Terry Luelling