[In the Observer]: The move. . . amended the city's licensing ordinance to require [in part]:
* that landlords may not cash or deposit any application fees collected for a unit until that unit has been rented. [Me]: A friendly correction: a landlord under the ordiance may not negotiate (i.e., cash, deposit etc.) an application fee until all prior applicants have been rejected, or all prior applicants have been offered an apartment but refused to take it. In other words, a landlord has to process each application completely--and the apartment must remain available-- before cashing or depositing the next application fee for that apartment. That's quite different from, as the sentence in the Observer implies, cashing all application fees as soon as the apartment is rented, or not being able to cash or deposit any application fee until the apartment is rented. I'm sure that's not what the Observer intended to say, so just piping in to get it more clearly stated. [Again in the Observer]: Schactman, a member of the city's Rental Dwelling License Board of Appeals, said after the meeting that the ordinance represented "some progress," but added that the one-day time limit for returning application fees was not something they had discussed with council members. "It was not what we agreed to," he said. City attorney Henry Reimer explained to Schactman and other property owners that the one-day time limit kicked in only after the tenant was informed he or she would be rejected for the unit. [Me]: The only 'one-day time limit' in the ordinance relates to the choice tenants have in how application fees are returned to them. Under the ordinance, a landlord must provide on an application form a choice for the tenant to make in how the application fee is returned, if at some point it must be returned. There are three choices (and, with the exception of the 'one business-day's notice,' they mirror state law): destroy it, return it by mail, or retrieve it upon one business-day's notice. The onus is on a tenant who, once informed of the rejection, must provide at least one business-day's notice that he/she is coming to get the fee. I don't read the ordinance to suggest that the landlord has one day to get it back to the tenant--they just have to have it ready to be picked up within a day after being notified that a tenant is coming to get it. Gregory Luce St. Paul REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
