Does your area have a so called "brothel law" that makes renting a home with roommates difficult?

[kdonnel]

My daughter is looking to secure housing for next school year. Traditionally at her college only freshmen live on campus. My daughter and three other girls were looking at their options. The apartments near the college all rent for about $700 - $900 a person for a 4 bed room apartment while 4 bed room homes rent for about $1800, a significant savings.

But it doesn't look like they will be able to rent a home unless they look much further from campus due to a county ordinance that limits single family homes to no more then 2 unrelated family members. One city within the county has their own ordinance that allows up to 3 unrelated family members but there are not very many homes for rent within the city limits.

Several of the potential landlords they have spoken with are willing to rent to them and other college students but warn them that in years past tenants have been cited and given 30 days to vacate or face a $2,000 fine. Other times the tenants have made it multiple years without issue. The landlord could not say why some were successful and others were not.

I have been reading some online and some say the ordinance was passed to placate the builders of apartments near the campus who wanted to fill their newly constructed buildings and had provided campaign contributions to sway the county officials. Others say it is to prevent party houses but it seems there are already plenty of laws and ordinances that govern and protect nearby homeowners from nuisances. Either way it makes it difficult and more expensive for college students in particular in the county.

 

[dish rag]

I wish, at my Florida place it's 5 unrelated people, and it's very well taken advantage of especially by the Vietnamese, it's a constant flow of people in and out of the houses, cars parked all over. It's hard for the city to do anything about it they say.

 

[soccerdad72]

The town my alma mater is in used to have that law. Not sure if it's still in place (I graduated in 1994). The town basically hated the college, so they made a lot of laws like that. Fortunately, it was a really small town, so the 'city limits' were only a couple square miles and just outside of the town there were a lot of rental houses. A few landlords within town would rent to students, with the stipulation being only 2 names could be on the rental agreement (e.g. they looked the other way and would play dumb if someone caught more than 2 living in the home).

 

[Floridaman999]

Never heard of it in my area.

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

We have that here, it wasn't really enforced until a whole slew of new apartment complexes started to be built around campus. When they did start enforcing it, people who had rented together for years were forced to move. It's ridiculous and so obvious that the apartment builders pressured the city to do so.

Up until this happened, I'd planned on buying a 4 bedroom house when my oldest starts college and letting him rent the other 3 bedrooms as an income source. My youngest will go to college about the time his brother graduates so we would potentially have been able to use the same house for both kids (assuming they both go locally). Now we can't do that.

 

[dish rag]

We have that here, it wasn't really enforced until a whole slew of new apartment complexes started to be built around campus. When they did start enforcing it, people who had rented together for years were forced to move. It's ridiculous and so obvious that the apartment builders pressured the city to do so.

Up until this happened, I'd planned on buying a 4 bedroom house when my oldest starts college and letting him rent the other 3 bedrooms as an income source. My youngest will go to college about the time his brother graduates so we would potentially have been able to use the same house for both kids (assuming they both go locally). Now we can't do that.

You wouldn't think it was ridiculous if you were a homeowner in a sub division that turned into college rentals. There are neighborhoods near UCF that have been ruined by college rentals. The streets, driveways and front yards are filled with cars and the places are not kept up. It's hard to visualize unless you have seen it first hand.

 

[BLAZEY]

There was an article in our local paper about just this. However its not the apartment building owners, just a really old law on the books. With the extreme low vacancy rate here, the apartments are already full and rental houses near the university are the norm. Changes to the bylaw are now in the works it seems.https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/...-to-student-eviction-may-be-amended-1.4273654

 

[CdnCarrie]

In our city there is a huge problem with unlicensed rooming houses in the suburbs around the big University campus. they are cracking down on it.
Problems similar to what dish rag mentions. Plus bedrooms with locks that were a fired hazard. No one cutting the lawn, etc.
And it's a lovely established neighbourhood!

 

[Southernmiss]

.

 

[aprilchem]

Yes, we have it in the town where I live - which is a college town. No more than 3 unrelated people per home.

 

[kimblebee]

We don’t have one as far as I know.

 

[superme80]

We didn't have that law, and we had plenty of "activity" in my home town. I have lived in 1 college town and they had no such law thankfully.

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

You wouldn't think it was ridiculous if you were a homeowner in a sub division that turned into college rentals. There are neighborhoods near UCF that have been ruined by college rentals. The streets, driveways and front yards are filled with cars and the places are not kept up. It's hard to visualize unless you have seen it first hand.

I completely understand, I grew up in a college town and know exactly what it's like to live around students. The problem here was that they started enforcing it in neighborhoods that had been used as student housing for years with no issues.

I should also probably add that our University until about 5 years ago had very little on campus housing. When we moved here they only had enough dorm rooms for a small percentage of the FRESHMAN class, nowhere near enough to house the entire student population of around 20,000. Therefore, there are a lot of rental houses in the area. It's not like they are moving into newer neighborhoods, just that the neighborhoods around campus have been primarily student rentals for decades, then all of a sudden they weren't allowed any more.

 

[CdnCarrie]

We don’t have one as far as I know.

There is a law against illegal rooming houses. Janice Lukes (Councillor for Waverley West) has been working hard on getting rid of the illegal rooming houses in Fort Richmond around Fort Garry campus.

 

[tvguy]

Never heard of any restrictions on people having to be related in live in the same house. Not sure how that is even constitutional.
A Google Search for my state, California says the California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing rule is called the "two plus one" rule on housing. A house can have 2 people per bedroom, plus one in the living area. So in OP's example of a 4 bedroom home, 9 people could live there. They don't care about them being related.

I know a couple of folks who just ended up either buying a house for their child's College years and renting out space to other kids, or hooking up with other parents who have purchased a home for their child, and renting space from them. A former co-worker did this, and sold the house after his son finished college and actually made $50,000.

 

[dish rag]

I completely understand, I grew up in a college town and know exactly what it's like to live around students. The problem here was that they started enforcing it in neighborhoods that had been used as student housing for years with no issues.

I should also probably add that our University until about 5 years ago had very little on campus housing. When we moved here they only had enough dorm rooms for a small percentage of the FRESHMAN class, nowhere near enough to house the entire student population of around 20,000. Therefore, there are a lot of rental houses in the area. It's not like they are moving into newer neighborhoods, just that the neighborhoods around campus have been primarily student rentals for decades, then all of a sudden they weren't allowed any more.

Yes I can see the problem when the rules were changed. They should maybe have grandfathered the existing owners and changed as homes were sold.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

You wouldn't think it was ridiculous if you were a homeowner in a sub division that turned into college rentals. There are neighborhoods near UCF that have been ruined by college rentals. The streets, driveways and front yards are filled with cars and the places are not kept up. It's hard to visualize unless you have seen it first hand.

My stepdaughter went to UCF and I know what you mean. She changed apartments each of her four years there. One was a townhouse community that was probably nice when first built, then basically turned into a dump after numerous college student turnovers. Whoever owned the units likely took a beating when they tried to sell.

 

[kdonnel]

Not sure how that is even constitutional.

I had never heard of restrictions like this before but in my research since, I did see where a Louisiana judge ruled a similar ordinance in that state was unconstitutional in 2013. I guess no one has tried to challenge it here. I am positive I don't want to be that person.

 

[bcla]

Not around here. I've owned a home where I rented out individual rooms. Most of my tenants over the years have been unrelated groups of friends who did it to save money in an area that's increasingly more and more expensive.

But aren't most of these "brothel laws" focusing on larger groups - like 8 or more? And my understanding is that a lot of them (but not all to avoid equal protection claims) were restricted to the number of women. I found this one for Evanston, Illinois:

https://dailynorthwestern.com/2018/...-officials-seek-change-evanstons-brothel-law/

There's talk of these being used to prevent sororities, although I'd think sororities could be specifically licensed by a city or county.

 

[kdonnel]

Not around here. I've owned a home where I rented out individual rooms. Most of my tenants over the years have been unrelated groups of friends who did it to save money in an area that's increasingly more and more expensive.

But aren't most of these "brothel laws" focusing on larger groups - like 8 or more? And my understanding is that a lot of them (but not all to avoid equal protection claims) were restricted to the number of women. I found this one for Evanston, Illinois:

https://dailynorthwestern.com/2018/...-officials-seek-change-evanstons-brothel-law/

There's talk of these being used to prevent sororities, although I'd think sororities could be specifically licensed by a city or county.

The focus on woman is why they tend to be called brothel laws but in this case the county ordinance does not single out woman.

You can not have more then 2 unrelated adults living in a single family home.