Of the more than 1,000 bills filed for the current legislative session that runs through June 11, the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors is closely following—and opposing—just two.
One would raise recording fees on home sales to help pay down bond debt at the 19th Judicial District Courthouse and another would provide victims of domestic violence with new protections from evictions.
The former measure, House Bill 780 by Rep. Ted James, D-Baton Rouge, would allow for a new recording $60 fee. That’s on top of the current recording fees, which start at $30 and can go much higher depending on the number of pages filed and other details of each transaction.
The bill is scheduled to come before the House Committee on Judiciary on Thursday. If passed into law, the additional fees would be used to pay down bond debt on the 19th JDC building that opened in late 2010. A $100 million bond was used to finance construction of the courthouse.
“They’ve already recently raised the fees for permitting and now they want to come back and raise these fees,” says GBRAR President Donna Wolff. “We’re opposed to it and so are the title companies, so I know there is going to be a big contingent at the Capitol on Thursday to speak against it.”
While it’s relatively easy to take a stand against higher fees, the GBRAR is walking a finer line in its opposition to Senate Bill 174 by Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, D-Baton Rouge. The bill would make it easier for domestic violence victims to get out of a lease without penalty. It also would make it illegal to refuse to rent to someone based on a domestic dispute, or to terminate a lease based on a domestic violence incident. The bill won narrow approval in the Senate last week, by a 21-16 vote—just one more than was needed—and now heads to the House.
“We’re in support of protecting domestic violence victims,” says Wolff, “but we think this bill is too vague as written and will put landlords in a bad position.”
Broome attempted to get a similar bill passed last session, but faced tough opposition from the Apartment Association of Louisiana, which represents more than 90,000 rental units in the state. LIke GBRAR, the association said the bill placed an undue burden on landlords and was too vague.
After the bill failed last year, Broome went back to the drawing board for SB 174, which more clearly defines documentation required for verification of a domestic violence victim and other aspects of the potential law. The apartment association remains opposed to the bill. Wolff says it will put landlords in a precarious position that they simply should not be in.
“They’re going to have to make judgement calls that they’re not qualified to make,” she says. “So it puts an undue burden on them.”
—Steve Sanoski
