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Comment

I am a small private landlord and also own a residential property management company in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. Over the last 30+ years, we have had the privilege of providing safe and well-maintained rental homes to 1,000s of individuals and families in our community. I am responding to the RFI as I am concerned that federal regulation of single-family rentals will be detrimental to our rental housing market and our communities.

In the Tampa Bay area, over 60% of the single-family rental properties are owned by small “mom and pop” landlords and this provides essential housing in our community. Most small private landlords own rental property to provide income when they retire and so they are very sensitive to the effects of government regulations on their investments. For example, the private landlords directly affected by the CARES Act eviction moratorium, made a loss on their investment when their tenants could not pay the rent and were quick to sell their properties for alternate investments as soon as the moratorium expired. Federally-backed “rent control”, “just cause” evictions, and other regulations will reduce margins, increase investment risk and disproportionately affect small private landlords. Why would they want to risk their retirement by providing rental housing if they can make better and safer returns on Wall Street?

Tampa Bay's rents have increased over the last couple of years due to a lack of supply. We need more supply, not price controls on the end product to stabilize the market. Let’s not make it worse with more regulation and actively discourage small private landlords from providing rental housing to our community.