IOWA CITY (KWWL) – You’d be hard-pressed to find a tenant excited about paying more rent.

“It’s terrible. You know, we want to save as much money as we can,” said Cody Slager, a University of Iowa student living off campus.

But many landlords say, given the current tax system in Iowa, they have little choice.

“I don’t think it’s a question of landlords or land owners pocketing the extra money,” said property manager and owner David Kacena.

Kacena says taxes on properties like his are excessive.

“I’ve got properties that are 29 to 30 percent of the revenues are paid out in taxes. That’s 105 days just to pay the property taxes,” Kacena said.

Under the current system, apartment owners pay taxes on their property’s entire valuation, a cost that’s often then passed on to the tenants.

But state lawmakers are considering rolling that tax rate back over the next five years to the residential rate, meaning apartment owners would pay taxes on only about half of the property’s value just like homeowners.

In college towns like Cedar Falls, Dubuque or Iowa City, rolling back the rate on these properties would be a significant loss to the tax base.

“It hurts communities like Iowa City, Ames, the Des Moines area where multiple housing is more prevalent,” said Iowa City manager Tom Markus.

If these changes were implemented, Iowa City would stand to lose $2.8 million a year, straining its ability to provide services like police, fire, and public works.

City leaders are asking lawmakers to look elsewhere in reforming the tax system.

“Landlords are in that for a commercial purpose which to me means that it should remain in the commercial tax category,” Markus said.

A component of a massive effort for legislators in Des Moines to reform the current property tax system.

Or is it really??

One of the newest scams preys on the would-be renter.  The scammer steals the information from the on-line listing and inserts their contact information.  Then when contact is made they want you to send money (cash) without any personal contact and or being able to view the property.

You can read a good article on this by going to:  Craigslist Scams

The safest way to find rental property is to make sure you are dealing with a local property management company and always view the apartment, condo, duplex, townhouse or single family home you are interested in.  We at K-rem hope this makes for safer renting.

For best results with you dishwasher cut back on the amount of powdered soap you use.  Don’t use liquid soap and never use liquid dish soap.  Next, run the hot water in your kitchen sink until it is good and hot and then press the start button.  Soap works best with hot water and there can be  a lot of cold water in the line before it heats up.  Always use a rinse aid like Jet Dry.  It is also a good idea to periodically run a product like Dishwasher Magic through to help keep things cleaned out and cut down on build-up.

Remember, it’s not the dishwasher manufacture that is telling you how much soap to use it’s the company selling you the soap.

What the light is telling you is that the air inside the oven is heated to the set temperature.

At that point the oven lining and racks are still heating up.  When you open the door you let much of the hot air out and the oven has to work to regain the right heat setting.  If you wait an additional five to ten minutes it lets all of the metal inside come up to the proper temperature and after putting your cookies or pizza in it takes a lot less time to reheat.

It is a lot like getting into a car in the middle of winter.  The air in the car gets heated quickly but the steering wheel is still cold.

Next time give it a few extra minutes to heat up.

Recycling

In Iowa City you can drop off recyclables at:

City Carton Recycling All types of recycling
3 East Benton St.
Iowa City, Iowa  52240

East Side Recycling Center All types of recycling
2401 Scott Blvd. SE
Iowa City, Iowa  52240

Iowa City Landfill and Recycle Center All types of recycling
3900 Hebl Ave. SW
Iowa City, Iowa  52240

Hy-Vee Food Store All types of recycling
1201 N. Dodge St.
Iowa City, Iowa  52245

Eastdale Plaza Paper/newspaper, plastics #1-7
1^st Ave and Lower Muscatine Rd.
Iowa City, Iowa  52240

Drug Town Paper/newspaper, plastics #1-7
301 N. 1^st Ave.
Iowa City, Iowa  52245

In Coralville:

Coralville Recycling Center All types of recycling
110 East 7^th St.
Coralville, Iowa  52241

Hy-Vee Food Store Plastic bags
1914 8^th St.
Coralville, Iowa 52241

Iowa City recently changed their curbside recycling to make it easier for you.  Now you do not need to sort items into bags before putting the container at the curb.  Just put them altogether and let the city take care of sorting.

For as little as $100 to $150 per year you can buy a Renters Insurance policy that will give you $20,000 in content coverage and liability coverage of $100,000.  You can increase your the dollar amount of coverage as needed.

As property managers in the Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty areas we have seen many instances where those with renters insurance have been treated like Kings and Queens and those without have been left to fend for themselves.  In the case of the leaking water heater in a Coralville property the tenant’s insurance company cleaned up the water, replaced those items beyond repair and picked up, cleaned and returned the repairable items.  Not just clothing but furniture and electronics too.  They even paid for a motel room until the tenant was able to return to the unit.  In the case of the burst pipe the landlord’s insurance company pursued the tenant who had turned off the heat and recovered damages they had paid to the owner of the property.  If the tenant would have had Renters Insurance their insurance company would have reimbursed the owner’s insurance company and the tenant would not have had to pay out of pocket.  The tenant in the flooded unit below who had no insurance was left literally out in the cold.

We have had three instances of fire where Renters Insurance has played a big part in tenant’s lives.  One was caused by a tenant, one caused by a tenant’s friend and one caused by a short in the building wiring.  In the one caused by the electrical problem the tenant wished to return to their apartment after it was reconstructed.  Their insurance company not only replaced all of their belongings they put him up in a motel for three months until the building was rebuilt.

The fire started by a tenant’s friend (smoking in the garage) was in a four unit building which was completely destroyed.  There was next to nothing that was salvageable.  Two of the tenants had insurance and two did not.  The two who did were put up in nice motels paid for by the insurance companies until they could find a place to move to and they moved in with new possessions.  The other two were put up for a couple of nights by the Red Cross and then turned loose.  The insurance company pursued the tenant whose friend had started the fire for reimbursement for damages.

The third was also a fire started by careless smoking.  The tenant had insurance and was put up in a motel until the house was rebuilt and their possessions were replaced.  The renter’s insurance company reimbursed the owners insurance company so the owners company did not have to pursue the tenant for their liability in starting the fire.

Many homeowner policies that student’s parents have will cover you while you are in temporary housing like dormitories.  Those companies don’t consider temporary housing to be off campus apartments and houses where the student would have a year lease in their own name.  This is often a misunderstanding that parents have.

Most of your preferred insurance companies will give you a discount if you already have auto insurance with them and offer options like jewelry coverage.  Several items like jewelry need to be identified and additional coverage obtained at the time of taking out the policy.  Jewelry coverage could also cover mysterious disappearance (typically with no deductable) where you may lose a stone from a ring or necklace.

As you can see from the situations above the cost of the premium went a long way in helping people keep their lives together.

If you are having trouble with replacing the battery in your smoke detector check out our “Easy Maintenance Videos” in the Maintenance section of our website.