That's an unusual one. Sounds like a good money-maker for the city, though, but I'm thinking like you in wondering what's next. I'm also wondering what the heck it was for other than to make some money for the city to begin with.

Out here one gets in touch with the landlord by sending a registered letter to the owner of record, whose contact address is a matter of public record.

Do you have problems with "mini-dorms" there like we do here? I wouldn't think so since the price of real estate is so much more reasonable there. Just in care you don't know the term "mini-dorms," it's when one crams as many students as possible into a house. Around San Diego State here, landlords like to take these older homes and renovate them by convering the garage into a bedroom, adding another bedroom on top of that, and perhaps putting a granny shack in the back, taking a living room and turning it into a bedroom, etc. By the time they finish, they've taken a three bedroom with a garage and turned it into a seven bedroom. At two students per bedroom, they cram 14 students in there, Then add in a car for each student -- this is California -- and your neighborhood all of a sudden becomes a huge parking lot with lots of mini-dorms.

I could possibly see the new registration requirement as a way to try to control mini-dorms, but even that might be a stretch.