TOPA Makes Minneapolis City Council Task List

Last night’s weekly Zoom call featured the Minneapolis Area Realtors Director of Government Affairs Eric Myers, who discussed the city council’s proposed Opportunity to Purchase ordinance.

If passed, the ordinance would require housing providers to offer their tenants the right of first refusal on the sale of the property they reside in, the chance to meet any offers the owner may get from a third party, and the right to assign their rights to buy the property to a third party.

As currently framed, owners of 1-4 unit properties owned by an individual (not held in an LLC), are exempt from the ordinance. If the individual has more than 5 rental licenses, however, they would be bound by the ordinance.

Properties that are less than 10 years old would also be exempted from the ordinance.

Now, this may be the point at which a small landlord shrugs and says, “Doesn’t effect me.” That would be a mistake. Nothing has been passed or rejected yet. With the current city council, things can change rapidly.

More importantly, this issue is part of a larger bundle of ordinances the city is proposing that will greatly impact housing providers, including: rent control, just cause evictions, restrictions on short-term rentals, eviction moratoriums, as well as credit and criminal background checks.

To see the framework of the ordinance currently being drafted click on this link: TOPA Direction to Minneapolis Staff for Ordinance Language Development 03.12.2021.

To see the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors position on TOPA, click here. TOPA – OTP Talking Points

If you couldn’t catch last night’s Zoom call, you can catch a recorded version of it here. CLICK HERE