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Albuquerque council rejects local rental‑practices ordinance after hours of testimony and amendments
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Summary
After extensive public testimony and multiple floor amendments, the council failed to adopt O25‑102 — a local ordinance intended to enforce fee transparency required by state SB‑267. Councilors and speakers disagreed over duplication of enforcement, resources for code enforcement, and whether the state Attorney General has responsibility to enforce SB‑267.
The Albuquerque City Council considered O25‑102, a local rental‑practices ordinance intended to implement enforcement and penalties to accompany the state’s Senate Bill 267 (effective July 2025). Following hours of public testimony from renters, housing advocates and real‑estate professionals, and multiple floor amendments, the final motion to adopt the ordinance as amended failed.
Supporters — tenants, housing‑justice organizations and some councilors — said the state law’s remedies are not being enforced and that local enforcement is necessary to give renters an accessible path to accountability. Speakers described undisclosed application, move‑in and monthly platform fees and urged a local penalty and local enforcement mechanism so tenants could pursue relief without costly private litigation.
Opponents, including some property‑management representatives and trade groups, warned the ordinance created overlapping enforcement with the Attorney General’s office under SB‑267 and could draw city code‑enforcement resources away from other life‑safety priorities. Multiple council floor amendments sought to address those concerns by delaying the city’s enforcement start date (effective date amendment), creating an education/outreach requirement, clarifying that prior state action could bar local enforcement for the same facts, and directing coordination with the state Attorney General.
Council discussion focused on two practical questions: (1) who has statutory enforcement authority for the state law, and whether the AG’s office will do the enforcement it wrote into SB‑267; and (2) whether Albuquerque planning/code‑enforcement has funding and staff capacity to take on a new enforcement workload. Planning staff told the dais that an ordinance is required for local code enforcement to act and that additional capacity would be needed to handle extra workload; administration staff said consumer‑affairs and code enforcement units would be part of an enforcement approach.
Councilors split on the proper path. Some urged passage to provide immediate city‑level remedies for renters in crisis; others sought to hold the ordinance until the city had a budgeted enforcement plan and clearer coordination with the Attorney General. A council motion to defer the ordinance until after budget discussions failed. The final vote on the ordinance as amended failed.
The debate generated a dense set of floor amendments and procedural changes that council staff and the administration said they would use to pursue further coordination with the state and to inform future drafts.
The council did approve several related measures earlier in the meeting — including a memorialized request for state coordination — and the sponsors said they would continue outreach with the Attorney General’s office and with stakeholder groups.
