Renters need recourse.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Oregon has a lengthy Residential Landlord and Tenant Act that requires rental housing to be habitable and safe. Most of the horror stories about substandard rental housing in Eugene - leaky roofs, stopped-up plumbing, unsafe wiring, broken heating systems, rotted railings - describe problems that landlords are already legally obligated to correct. Yet a group called Eugene Citizens for Housing Standards is on the right track in proposing that the city adopt a rental housing program of its own.

A useful program would not have to duplicate or expand upon the state landlord-tenant law. Rather, Eugene should look for ways to make it easier for renters to enforce standards that are already on the books. As it is, a tenant who can't get a landlord to fix a hot water heater or install working locks on exterior doors must go to court - a complicated, costly and time-consuming proposition. A quicker, less expensive way of settling disputes would serve landlords and tenants alike.

The coalition recommends that Eugene consider a program like the one in Corvallis, whose rental housing market has similarities to Eugene's: Both cities have large populations of student renters, and tenants in both cities are protected by the same state laws.

Corvallis' rental housing program aims to avoid landlord-tenant disputes. A tenant who finds problems with a rental property's heating, plumbing, weatherproofing or structural integrity notifies the landlord by mail. If the landlord does not respond within 10 days, the tenant contacts the city's housing standards officer. The officer has the power to make inspections, dismiss complaints or order repairs. A landlord who refuses to act on a repair order may be subject to fines.

The worst disputes could still end up in court, but Corvallis' program is designed to make legal action the last resort. The program's administrator says that 90 percent of complaints are resolved after tenants contact their landlords. He conducts only three or four inspections a year, in a city with 11,000 rental units. The Eugene-Springfield area has about twice that many, according to Duncan & Brown, a Eugene real estate appraisal and analysis firm.

Duncan & Brown's spring survey of the local rental market found an apartment vacancy rate of 5.3 percent - a figure that puts supply and demand roughly in balance. Competition for renters is stiff enough that landlords have resorted to offering a free month's rent for a one-year lease or other incentives. After a steep runup in the 1990s, rents have stabilized over the past five years - a two-bedroom apartment built before 1988 in Eugene currently rents for an average of $633 a month, up 10 percent from 1999. Factor in a one-month discount, and rents are essentially flat.

But equilibrium in rental prices and supply does not mean that renters always have the market power to force landlords to fully comply with the state landlord-tenant law. Renters will put up with inconveniences, even hazards, if their only other options are to break their lease and move or go to court. A Corvallis-style program would give renters another means of ensuring that the places they live are in compliance with state law. Landlords would also benefit from having a formal process that allowed them to identify and correct serious problems before they landed in court.

The Corvallis program is funded by an $8 annual assessment on each rental unit - too small a charge to have a noticeable impact on rents. Any program in Eugene would need to be similarly self-supporting. The issue of housing standards will be on the Eugene City Council's agenda this month, and it deserves a close look. Oregon's rental housing standards are of little use unless there's an effective means of ensuring they're respected.