An Apartment Owner is Suing Portland Over the New Renter Protection Ordinance

Four days after Portland’s so-called renter protections took effect, an apartment owner has filed a lawsuit claiming the city’s new ordinance is invalid under state law.

Melcliff Associates, which owns several multifamily buildings in the area, is challenging Portland’s new ordinance that requires landlords give tenants a minimum of 90 days notice before serving them with a no-cause eviction or raising their rent by more than 5 percent.

The lawsuit, filed by attorney John Di Lorenzo for the plaintiff, claims the new ordinance amounts to rent control, which is banned under Oregon statute.

“The Ordinance threatens severe penalties should Plaintiff attempt to comply with paramount state law and its Rental Agreements, rather than the Ordinance,” the lawsuit reads. “Plaintiff faces real and immediate threat and irreparable injury by virtue of the chilling effect of the Ordinance.”

Housing Commissioner Dan Saltzman in October introduced the protective measures after housing activists declared a “renters state of emergency” and asked for a moratorium on all no-cause evictions and a one-year notice for rent increases of more than 5 percent.

At the time Saltzman proposed the ordinance, city attorneys predicted they’d get sued by landlords, but told City Council they believed the terms of the ordinance were legally defensible. Saltzman in an email to the Mercury today stood behind the ordinances.

“The new Portland tenant protections provide renters more advance notice of rental increases – 30 days is just not enough time for renters to budget for the exorbitant rental increases many families are facing,” Saltzman wrote. “City Council, upon the advice of its attorneys, determined that a reasonable and sound legal option was to extend that notice to 90 days.”