The City of Kent and a group of Kent landlords and tenants have reached a settlement in a legal dispute over a residential rental inspections law that the plaintiffs said amounted to an invasion of privacy.
Kent landlords Bernie Noble and Michael Shrigley, Noble’s tenants, and Marketplace Rentals sued Kent in February 2021 over the law, which requires landlords to license their residential rental units, pay biennial licensing fees, and allow the city’s Community Development Department to inspect each unit every other year. Failure to comply results in fees ranging from $100 to $1,000, with multipliers depending on various factors.
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