Rent controls for parking spaces? Some cities may be forced into it

The newest tenant-landlord hassle (surfacing in some larger cities in the United States which have rent controls) poses the possibility of such a thing as the eviction of tenants' cars.

That's right. Not the eviction of people residing in rented quarters - but of their cars. Behind the newest turmoil is this kind of a loophole: In most cities that have rent controls for living premises, there generally is no such thing as rent control on the apartment-complex car-parking spaces - for which tenants are generally asked to pay extra.

So some tenants have had their automobiles evicted - and their parking spaces rented to others at higher rates. These auto-owning newcomers are usually not tenants.

One city attorney in an area where this is occurring commented on the problem , pointing out that the landlords who do this kind of higher-priced switching in their garages might have to acquire licenses to run parking facilities.

That can become time-consuming as well as expensive, the lawyer said, and the resulting confusion can be settled only by local ordinances; or maybe some clever subterfuge.