Nevada SB256 will hurt Nevada tenants and must be stopped

By Casey Powers | March 24, 2019

Yet another Nevada tenant law change is on the table, which would greatly increase the risk and cost of owning rentals in Nevada. This will hurt the people the bill aims to protect, and will hurt the Nevada economy.

SB256 would require:

  • No refusal of rental applicants based on the tenant receiving government benefits (like section 8 etc)
  • Landlords to NOT decline rental applicants for low-income housing projects due to prior history of inability to pay rent
  • That landlords perform pre-move out plus post-move out walkthroughs with tenants, if requested
  • The requested post-move out walkthrough to be performed within 3 days of tenant move out
  • If no issues found at the post-move out walkthrough with tenant, full deposit must be refunded
  • Return of security deposit within 14 days, or within 5 days of the post-move out walkthrough, whichever is sooner
  • Cap late fees to only 5% of rent
  • Landlords to accept late rent payments without requiring payment of late fees
  • Remove the ability to collect late fees or any other fee as additional rent (in other words, remove the ability to collect any fees at all)
  • Allow tenants to claim “nonrepair of rental” as a defense to eviction, without requiring them to pay rent!

And much more. You can read the full text of the proposed changes here.

Bad for landlords, bad for tenants, bad for Nevada

Unfortunately, if this bill passes, the cost and risk to owners of rental property will drastically increase. The cost of rental turnovers will be huge. As a result, Nevada landlords will be forced to raise rent prices and rental application standards. More Nevada tenants will have difficulty finding good, affordable housing. Many investors and landlords will simply sell their properties and avoid future investments here. Consequently, this will consolidate more rentals into the hands of bigger corporate owners and reduce competition. Bottom line, this bill would hurt tenants and the Nevada economy.

Restrict self-managing landlords

Furthermore, the reasons and examples presented for this bill were bad practices that a licensed property manager would not use. Licensed property managers are far less likely to abuse tenant rights, because their license depends on compliance. Conversely, self-managing landlords often ignore tenant rights, because they don’t know the laws. If our legislators want to help Nevada renters, stricter rules on self-managing landlords, especially out of state landlords, would be a much better solution. It is impossible for most out of state landlords to manage rental property correctly.

Express your opposition

We need to protect Nevada tenants and landlords from the unintended consequences of ill-thought-out laws like SB256. You can express your opposition online. Simply click the following link and select SB256. If you are an out of state landlord, please use the address of your Nevada rental property on the form. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/Opinions/80th2019/

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