Provo's proposed "good landlord" program is meeting opposition from members of a new group: unlicensed landlords.

Orem resident Stan Allman, who has owned a single-family rental unit in Provo for the past two years, said he never got a rental dwelling license because the city never told him it was required after the council implemented the rule in 2003. And though he's skeptical about parts of the good landlord program, he said he doesn't think it's fair that the city would require a license to be eligible for it.

"I don't feel like proper notice -- or any kind of notice, for that matter -- was given about the RDL," he said. "I think you'd find a lot of guys that are just totally ignorant of all of it. You'd say, 'good landlord program,' and they'd say, 'what?' and you'd say, 'RDL,' and they'd say, 'what?' "

But the C. More than 95 percent of landlords in town now possess such a license, and those who do not probably don't have a good reason for neglecting to get one during the four-year window, said Council Chairwoman Cindy Richards.

"It was in the public debate over 14 times between 2000 and 2003, and then in August 2003, after many iterations, after talking with many owners of apartments both large and small, it passed," she said. "When we passed the ordinance that closed that window, it was based on the data that close to all the recorded absentee owners had already been through the process. I would be very interested in what apartment owner did not get his RDL."

Richards said the city sent out thousands of letters when the ordinance was passed, and another batch before the window was closed. Whether unlicensed landlords would qualify for the good landlord program would be up to the administrative staff running it, she said.

Taylor Oldroyd, CEO of the Utah County Association of Realtors, said he's heard from several landlords concerned about being excluded from the program. He's asking the Municipal Council, if it approves the program in the first place, to consider reopening the window for rental dwelling license applications for those who didn't apply for one earlier.

"My hope is that the city would consider allowing people that didn't come in to get the RDL for whatever reason -- maybe they didn't want to, or they didn't understand it, or they missed the deadline and now they're just laying low," he said. "I'm hoping that they'll word it in a way that people will be incentivized."

Richards said there are no plans to add such a provision to the ordinance now. She said that if there are facts that bring up the question about whether the license window should be re-opened because there are landlords that didn't bring their units up to the state's life-safety code, then the council would look into them.

Council Vice Chairman George Stewart said it's important to remember that only those that had the opportunity to apply for a license and didn't would be excluded. New landlords can still apply for and receive a license, he said.

"Obviously, you're going to have to have a rental dwelling license in order to qualify for the good landlord program," he said. "The only people that have a problem right now are those that should've gotten the rental dwelling license in the past and didn't get it."

The issue will have to wait for at least six months for resolution: The city can't act until the state Legislature reconvenes next year to fix a glitch in state code that closed another window, one regarding when Provo must have conducted a municipal service study before being allowed to implement disproportionate fees for landlords.

• Ace Stryker can be reached at 344-2556 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it