Rent Control (1981)

Research Division | January 1, 1981

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  • Rent Control: Background paper 81-2
    • I. Introduction
      • Why Rent Control Should End
    • II. Components of Rent Control Laws
      • Emergency
      • Exemptions
      • Base Rents and Rollback Provisions
      • Rent Adjustments
      • Eviction Controls
      • Administration, Funding and Enforcement
    • III. Effects of Rent Control
      • Arguments Against Rent Control
      • Arguments For Rent Control
    • IV. Rent Control in Nevada
    • Suggested Reading
    • VI. Appendix
Background Paper 81-2 RENT CONTROL
RENT CONTROL I INTRODUCTION WHY RENT CONTROL SHOULD END Because it is unchristian, un-American, and unconstitutional. Because it is against God and the Bible. Because it is atheist and Communist in origin. Because it is unfair, unjust, and discriminatory. Because it is arbitrary and unprincipled and unbusinesslike. Because it is dictatorial and tyrannical. Because it is basically and fundamentally wrong. It makes orphans out of tenants and slaves out of owners. Because it gives more money to the tenants to buy whiskey, to gamble, and to throw to the wind ••• * Rent control often evokes strong visceral reactions, as the preceding passage attests. Rent control has been blamed for the fall of France, the fall of the democratic government of Austria, the decrease in the birth rate, and a good many other things. The praise or blame, hostility or applause predict-ably follow the economic self-interest and social philos-ophy of the individual. Debates over rent control carry both its proponents and its detractors into complex issues of economics, housing and taxation. Though there may never be an ultimate resolution of these issues, rent control has existed in one form or another for centuries in scores of countries allover the world. Some sources suggest rent controls may have been used in ancient Rome about 150 B.C. and documentation of its existence dates from the Middle Ages in Europe.** In the United States, state and local rent controls were enacted on a limited basis around the time of World War I. *Statement by the Property Owners Council, Nashville, Tennessee, by Rep. Rich of Pa., 95 CONGo REC. A1469 (1949) quoted in Willis, A Short History of Rent Control Laws, 36 CORNELL L.Q. 54, 87-88 (1950). **Ibid, pp. 87-88.

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Background Paper

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Background Paper 81-02