The city of Independence Missouri wants to add a requirement to their existing Rental Ready program. This would require that a housing provider in Independence must have a valid landlord business license before the utilities can be turned on in a property. Further, it would require that if the owner of the property is an LLC, that LLC must also be registered with the city.

Per Matt Robards who has headed up this advocacy initiative, this proposal is “indefinitely postponed. We need a few more advocates from Independence. If you would like to touch base with Matt on Rental Ready in Independence, give him a call at 816-463-8231.

At tonight’s Independence City Council meeting, the council and mayor voted 5-0 to “indefinitely postpone” Ordinance 23-108.

(Normally the council + mayor is 7 people, but one council seat is vacant and one council member didn’t come to the meeting.)

Before the vote, I spoke as opposed to that ordinance.  Nobody else from the public spoke either to support or oppose that ordinance.

One of the Council members commented that he also owned rental property in Independence and had experienced similar problems as I had when renewing his business license.

One of the Council members approached me after the meeting, thanked me for speaking, and said that there are probably some other changes to
Rental Ready that will be proposed in the next couple of months.  He said that they *probably* wouldn’t come up in January or February, but
March might be a good time.  His advice was to just keep checking the City Council agenda page for relevant ordinances.  That page is:

https://www.independencemo.gov/government/city-departments/newsroom/city7-our-government-access-channel/city-council-meetings

To get in touch with Matt

Independence Missouri Proposes Changes for the Rental Ready Program

Started in 2017, the Rental Ready Program in Independence Missouri requires all rental properties to be licensed and to pass a basic health and safety inspection every 2 years.

Link to the City Website for Full Details including the ordinance, the Landlord Tenant Guide, the Landlord Tenant Complaint Form and a list of approved inspectors for you to hire to complete your inspection.

Proposed Bill No 23-108

This would amend the current ordinance to require the housing provider of a rental dwelling to have a valid business license before utility service can be provided to that rental dwelling. Further, if the housing provider owns the property in an LLC, that business would need to be registered as an LLC within the city. City staff believe that this amendment would help the community to gain better compliance with the Rental Ready Program.

• Cover Sheet for Bill No 23-108
• Text of the Bill and what the city code would look like if passed
• Was discussed at December 4th, City Council Meeting (discussion starts at 1:11:04)

There is currently a Study Session Set for Monday, January 8th, 2024 at 6 pm at the Independence City Hall located at 111 E Maple Ave, Independence Missouri. We are unsure if the public is allowed to speak. And they will hold the second reading of the bill on January 16th’s City Council Meeting. where the public can speak if you register.

Thanks go out to Matt Roberds for bringing this to our attention.

To email the Independence City Council with your Concerns

• Mayor Rory Rowland – rrowland@indepmo.org 
• At-Large Councilmember Jared Fears – jfears@indepmo.org 
• At-Large Councilmember Bridget McCandless-bmccandless@indepmo.org
• 1st District Councilmember John Perkins – JPerkins@indepmo.org
• 2nd District Councilmember Brice Stewart – BStewart@indepmo.org
• 3rd District Councilmember Mike Steinmeyer MSteinmeyer@indepmo.org
• 4th District Councilmember Dan Hobart – DHobart@indepmo.org

Text of the Bill as of 11/01/2023 Below

Some Questions Posed about these Changes:

• The current landlord license process does not work very well, so adding things that depend on it working may not be a good idea.
• How does the city know if a property is a rental or not? ( fix and flip or family living in the property for example)
•  If the city thinks that a property is a rental and that the owner does not have a landlord license, will they turn at least the city- owned utilities (power and water) off, even if the property is occupied?
• Will the city try to enforce this on the utilities they don’t own (Spire, Comcast, AT&T, etc)?  How?
• If an investor buys a property that was previously owner-occupied, and the investor plans to do some rehab on the property before offering it for rent, do they need to get a landlord license immediately, or can they wait until the property is actually ready to rent?