History of LLIA

Landlords of Iowa was organized in Waterloo by Black Hawk County landlords in 1989. During that summer, weekly meetings were held to set up the first convention, determine funding and organize.

The first convention was held in October of 1989 at the Ramada Inn in Waterloo attended by 115 landlords from throughout the state. Following this convention, a steering committee was formed with Karen Atwood, Barb Blow, Sandy Schwickerath, Deb Boike, Cindy Blow from Waterloo and Luke Barlowe, Bill Hamilton from the Quad Cities. Quad Cities was the first chapter to join. After the second convention, Cedar Rapids (Linn County) joined.

Karen Atwood (Black Hawk) was elected as the first President in 1991 and served until the convention, when Luke Barlowe (Quad Cities) was elected. President in 1991.  Luke left for Tennessee shortly after that and the Vice-President, Richard Rehman (Linn County) became President serving from 1992 through 1997.  Roger Wahl (Pottawattamie County) served as President from 1998 through 1999.  Karen Atwood (Black Hawk) served as President in 2000. Penny Whitters (Linn County) served as President from 2001 through 2004.  Darryl Waugh (Clinton) served as President from 2005 through 2007.  Tony Jacobsen (Fort Dodge) served as President in 2008.  Keith Smith (Linn County) served as President from 2009 through 2011.  Walter Skovronski (Davenport) is our current president.

“Our original goals were to form a state organization to educate landlords on the Landlord/Tenant law, hire a lobbyist to keep us abreast of legislative matters and provide landlords with a mechanism for networking.”

In January of 1995 we, in cooperation with the Iowa Landlords Association, hired Joe M. Kelly as lobbyist and charged him with the duty of working to change landlord/tenant laws. Since then a number of laws have been changed and we have had a voice in preventing certain laws from becoming enacted.

We provide an annual convention to teach proper use of forms, bring in speakers on better land lording and provide opportunities for landlords to network. The conventions have been held in different locations throughout the state giving access to more landlords.

Today there are 16 chapters throughout the state with over 900 members. Chapters are located in Ames, Cedar Rapids, Clinton, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Des Moines, Dubuque, Fort Dodge, Iowa City, Knoxville, Marshalltown, Mason City, Muscatine, Ottumwa, Sioux City, and Waterloo/Cedar Falls.

Updated:  02/04/12