Web Design in Portland for Vacancy Pages Built to City Code 30.01.086

Updated November 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

In Portland, a landlord who advertises a vacancy must post notice at least 72 hours before applications open, then accept, conditionally accept or deny applicants in the order complete applications arrive. A complete application sent before the window opens is logged as received eight hours after it opens. Most of this now happens on a website: the listing, the application form and the clock behind it. Web design in Portland for landlords and property managers builds each of those pieces to City Code 30.01.086. Progression works out of New York, builds for Portland property managers remotely, and can meet the leasing team in person on request.

Logged at 5 p.m. for arriving at 7 a.m.

A leasing office posts a vacancy on Monday for applications that open Thursday at 9 a.m. A household sends a complete application at 7 a.m. on Thursday, two hours early. The code logs it as received at 5 p.m., eight hours after the window opens.

A second household sends a complete application at 9:05 a.m. and goes first. Nothing in the office decided that; the clock did. A rental site that stamps applications by the wall clock gets the order wrong, and the order is what the code regulates.

• The log records the date and time of each complete application.
• Early applications are logged as eight hours after the window opens.
• Several applications can be processed at once, but decisions go in order of receipt.
• The site needs one clock, and it has to follow the code.

Web design in Portland for landlords under City Code 30.01.086

Section 30.01.086 of Portland City Code, titled Evaluation of Applicants for Dwelling Units, sets how a landlord advertises a vacancy, how applications are ordered and what the form and the screening process must contain. The code page shows it as added by Ordinance 189580 and amended by Ordinances 189714, 190063, 190905 and 191973, effective January 1, 2025.

Portland web design for rentals starts with the notice, not the photos. Photos sell the unit; the notice, the form and the clock are what the code names. A site built for a vacancy therefore has three jobs: publish the notice on time, collect an application that carries the required items, and keep an honest record of when each complete application arrived.

Not every rental falls under the section. The code lists exemptions in C.2.d and in subsection G, among them regulated affordable housing leased through a lottery, a preference process or the Multnomah County Coordinated Access System, units not rented or advertised to the general public, and certain shared units, duplex units and accessory dwelling units with an owner on site. Whether an exemption applies to a particular unit is a question for the Portland Housing Bureau’s Rental Services Office or for counsel.

What does the section cover on a website?

Three things: the notice that goes up before the window opens, the application form for a vacant unit, and the record of when each complete application arrived. The rest of the section is about screening, and the site carries it as plain pages and messages.

Who decides what the site says about screening?

The landlord and its counsel. The site shows the choice clearly and does not make it.

Eight pins on two screens

The section asks for three things on the notice and five on the form. Each is a pin below: a spot on a screen, a line of the code and a person who keeps it current.

The vacancy notice, 72 hours ahead

The notice may carry the three items itself, or give an address, website address, internet link or other written way to reach them. A short notice that links one page per item satisfies the idea and keeps the listing tidy. The date and time of the window go first, because the 72 hours count back from them.

The application form, five items on the form itself

The code lists what an application form for a vacant unit must include. Two of the five are notices the City and the Portland Housing Bureau supply; the other three are choices the landlord makes, so the site should leave room for each. The fourth item, a description of the screening criteria and evaluation process, applies when a screening fee is charged.

• Put the pin numbers on a printed copy and walk each page of the form against it.
• Keep the two notices as current files and link them rather than retyping them.
• Name one person for each pin.
• Review all eight whenever the code or the notices change.

Pricing a site built to 30.01.086

A rental site is a normal business site with a few unusual parts: a timed notice, a form with set contents and a log. The market figures below cover the web work around those parts. Pricing depends on scope and is set in the written proposal.

Progression’s prices for a rental site, as listed

These are the fixed-scope prices on our website design and development page. Each is a starting price, and the proposal sets the final scope.

A property manager with one building might start from the landing page and add the form; a manager with several communities usually needs the business site, so each community has its own notice and criteria page. Our real estate website design page covers the wider property site.

A timestamp the form can prove

Section C.2 asks the landlord to record, at the start of the window, the date and time of each complete application, digitally or manually. A record that lives on the server is the only kind a leasing team can defend later.

Portland website development work stamps the time on the server when the application is complete, not when the first field is typed and not by the applicant’s device. The check for completeness runs before the stamp, because the code logs complete applications. A landlord may refuse to process an application that is materially incomplete.

An applicant can ask for the record. Within five business days of the request, the landlord provides the date and time it received the complete application. A log that exports to a plain page or file lets a person hand it over without opening the database.

How does a waitlist differ?

A landlord that keeps a waitlist instead of advertising a vacancy adds names in order of receipt, and decides applications from waitlist members in order of receipt of a completed application. The site’s list needs the same server-side stamp.

• Stamp on the server, in one time zone, at the moment the application is complete.
• Store early applications with the eight hour rule applied.
• Keep the original arrival time as well, so the log can be explained.
• Export the log as a page a person can print.

Accessible units and the first eight hours

The notice says whether a unit is an accessible dwelling unit, which the code defines as a Type A Unit under the Oregon Structural Building Code and ICC A117.1. For such a unit, an application received in the first eight hours from a household with a member who is mobility disabled gets priority and is decided before other applicants.

Web development in Portland, Oregon for a rental portfolio means the listing filter and the form agree. A unit marked accessible in the grid must say so in the notice, and the form must offer the disability option on the same screen flow. The priority rule belongs in the queue itself, not in someone’s memory on a busy Thursday.

If several applicants qualify, the code asks for decisions in order of receipt among them, and before applicants without a mobility disabled household member. The queue therefore needs two lanes during the first eight hours and one afterward.

What counts as mobility disabled?

The code defines it as a disability that causes an ongoing limitation of independent, purposeful, physical movement of the body or one or more extremities and requires a modifiable living space. The form invites applicants to indicate it and never asks for proof at that step.

• Mark accessible units the same way in the grid, the notice and the form.
• Build the first eight hours as a separate lane in the queue.
• Keep the disability field optional and plainly worded.
• Never use the field to screen anyone out.

Website design in Portland, Oregon for the screening criteria page

Subsection D sets a general screening process for every landlord. Beyond it, a landlord either uses criteria no more prohibitive than the low-barrier criteria listed in subsection E, or uses criteria of its own choosing and carries out an individual assessment, described in subsection F, before denying anyone.

Portland website design that serves this subsection gives the landlord one page that states which path it takes, in plain words the landlord and its counsel approve. That page is linked from every listing and from the form, which is also where the form item on screening criteria points when a fee is charged.

The low-barrier list covers criminal history, credit history and rental history, with a stated reach for each. Under the individual assessment, the landlord accepts and considers supplemental evidence and weighs the nature and severity of the incidents, their number and type, and the time that has passed. The page can state the landlord’s path and name the code subsections without restating every item.

Does the page make the landlord’s choice?

No. It states the choice the landlord and its counsel have made, and it keeps the wording fixed so that two applicants never read two versions.

Should the page repeat the whole low-barrier list?

Only if the landlord adopts it. A link to the code, plus the landlord’s own plain summary, is shorter and easier to keep current.

• State the path: low-barrier criteria, or the landlord’s own with an individual assessment.
• Link City Code 30.01.086 by name.
• Say where supplemental evidence can be added.
• Date the page whenever counsel changes it.

Identification fields with no Social Security gate

Subsection D.1 says a landlord may not reject an application as incomplete because an applicant or a member of the household does not produce a Social Security number or prove lawful presence in the United States. The landlord may not ask about the immigration status of a household member.

Portland website design that never asks for a Social Security number follows from that line. The form needs no required field for one. It offers an identification menu that matches the code’s list: a Social Security card, a permanent resident card, an immigrant visa, an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, a nonimmigrant visa, any government issued identification regardless of expiration date, or other identification that permits a reasonable check of name, date of birth and photo.

The wording stays plain and respectful. The field asks which document the applicant can provide and says that more than one kind is accepted. It does not ask why an applicant lacks a number, and it does not ask where anyone was born.

• No required Social Security field, and no error message that mentions one.
• An identification type menu that matches the code’s list.
• Expired government identification accepted.
• No question about immigration status anywhere on the form.

Income lines tied to the City’s yearly table

Subsection D.2 lets a landlord require monthly gross income of up to 2.5 times the rent when the rent is below the maximum monthly rent for a household earning no more than 80 percent of median income, as the Portland Housing Bureau publishes it each year. At or above that maximum, the limit is two times the rent.

The evaluation counts all of an applicant’s income sources and uses a rent figure reduced by any government rent voucher or housing subsidy available to the applicant. The Portland Housing Bureau’s page lists a 2026 Minimum Income Requirement table that took effect May 15, 2026, and the income line on a listing should be set from the table in force.

A landlord whose applicant falls short may ask for a guarantor or an added security deposit, and the applicant has no less than 48 hours to accept or decline after the landlord communicates the conditional approval in writing. The site’s message wording carries that detail.

Where does the income line live?

On each listing, in plain words, next to the rent. The number comes from the current table and is checked whenever the Bureau publishes a new one.

• Set the line from the table in force, listing by listing.
• Show how income is counted, including vouchers and subsidies.
• Tell applicants about a guarantor option in the same message as a conditional approval.
• Change every listing when the Bureau publishes a new table.

Decision letters, the 30 day appeal and the portal

After a landlord or its screening company completes the evaluation, the landlord has two weeks to send a written acceptance, conditional acceptance or denial. A conditional acceptance or denial describes the basis for the decision.

A landlord must offer an appeal for 30 days after a denial. The appeal gives the applicant a chance to correct, refute or explain the negative information. When an appeal is approved, the landlord prequalifies the applicant for its Portland properties for three months and waives the screening fee for the same period.

Web development in Portland covers the portal as well as the pages. The portal holds each message and its date, shows an applicant where the appeal stands, and keeps the three month window visible to the leasing team. Screening fee limits tie to what the screening company charges, so the fee line on the form should be set with counsel.

What goes in a decision letter?

The decision, the date and, for a conditional acceptance or denial, the basis. When a denial rests on the landlord’s own criteria, the code asks for an individual assessment first and a notice that explains the reasons.

• Send the letter inside the two week window and keep a copy with its date.
• Show the appeal option in the denial message.
• Track the 30 days and the three months as dates in the portal.
• Route fee questions to the person counsel names.

Before the next vacancy goes live

Eight checks cover the pins and the clock. Run them on a staging copy of the listing, then once more on the live one.

Our real estate website design page covers the wider site around a rental, and our property management marketing page covers how the listing reaches renters.

Who should run the checks?

Someone who did not build the page, with the code open beside the screen. The leasing manager is a good choice.

A web development agency in Portland that builds rental sites should hand over these six numbers on one page, so the leasing team can see them without reading the code.

Frequently asked questions