Articles — legislation

What’s up, gang. I’m back with another Legislative Update.   In last week’s update I told you about HB 250, the Squatters Bill that you need to support. If you missed that update, you can find it here. Today I’m going to talk about five other bills, one that you’ll likely want to support and four that I suspect you’ll want to oppose.   First, let’s talk about the one you need to support, House Bill 173.   HB 173   HB 173 prohibits any local government from adopting or enforcing an ordinance that creates or maintains a registry of...

Over the last couple of years you’ve likely heard a lot of talk, especially coming from the West Coast, about squatters and the idea of “squatters’ rights”. There were some horror stories out of California about people breaking into high-dollar homes and taking up occupancy and tying up the property for years because courts would not remove them.   And there’s no doubt that here in Kentucky certain people have attempted to abuse the idea of “squatters’ rights”. In most cases, they’ve moved in with the consent of a current tenant, then refused to leave later on, claiming that they...

So, today’s the day. This evening at 6:00 the LFUCG Social Services and Public Safety Committee will hear public comment on the proposed ordinance that would require housing providers to accept all forms of lawful income, including two very problematic sources: Section 8 vouchers and income from other individuals. I’ve already said most of what needs to be said about this issue, but I do want to comment on a couple of points in case I’m not able to speak tonight at the meeting. My daughter has a basketball event, so I won’t be able to stay at the meeting...

If you are a landlord in Lexington, I have bad news, and I mean very bad news. On October 10 at 1:00 p.m. Charlie Lanter, LFUCG’s Housing Commissioner, will be making a presentation about Source of Income Discrimination to the LFUCG Social Services & Public Safety Committee meeting. They already have a draft of an ordinance, and my guess is that they are looking to move this train down the tracks quickly.  Source of Income Discrimination?? What does that even mean? Well, there’s a technical legal answer to that question and there’s a practical answer. We’ll start with the technical...

The Kentucky General Assembly recently wrapped up its 2023 Legislative Session. There was no movement on most of the bills that would have been detrimental to rental owners, but one bill was passed into law that is concerning.  KRS 376.010 is known as the Mechanic's Lien Statute. You can read it here. It lays out the terms under which a contractor has the right to put a lien on real estate because he provided labor or materials to improve the property but was not paid for his work. Liens were available if the contractor provided the labor or materials under an agreement with...