City staff: New rules would likely improve rental properties
JANESVILLE — Regular inspections of rental properties funded by a landlord registration fee would improve the city's rental stock, according to Janesville city staff, but it will be up to the city council Monday night to decide if such a program is worth investigating.
Staff now inspect rental properties only after receiving complaints. Every day, inspectors find broken pipes, nonworking smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, unsafe wiring and failed heating, said Jennifer Petruzzello, neighborhood services director.
If regular inspections become a reality, "I think that we'll find significant numbers of (units) that do have housing violations," Petruzzello said.
Most people don't know the severity of housing violations inspectors find, she said. The city could address those proactively rather than wait for a complaint, she said.
Regular inspections would level the playing field for landlords who maintain their apartments by requiring others to do the same, she said.
Council President Kathy Voskuil asked the neighborhood services department to prepare background information about rental inspections and give a presentation to the council Monday.
If the council agrees staff should investigate the idea, staff would study how such a program could be implemented with input from police, landlords and others, according to a memo written by Kelly Mack, neighborhood development specialist.
The city has about 9,900 rental units.
Four additional staff—three property maintenance inspectors and a customer service worker—would be needed to administer a broader inspection program.
Total cost would be $270,000. Revenue would be about $297,000, assuming a $30 per unit fee for rental properties, according to Mack's memo.
In recent years, the city has adopted strategies to improve the quality of the housing stock, including reinspection fees, citation authority and chronic nuisance ordinances, Mack said.
In 2012, property maintenance conducted 5,356 inspections based on 1,586 complaints.
Two full-time and one part-time property maintenance specialists inspect properties to enforce minimum housing standards required by city ordinances, Mack said.
Registrations and inspections "would expand upon existing, proactive efforts resulting in consistent inspections citywide," Mack said.
"The overall health of our residential communities is a necessary component of business recruitment and economic development in Janesville."
In a survey of 13 comparable cities, five have landlord registration and/or rental property inspection programs, Mack said.
Six are working on something similar, Mack said.
Most programs require:
-- An address and contact person—not a post office box or business—for each property. Many properties are owned by people who do not live in the city or even in the state. They generally are more difficult to contact when violations are discovered. Staff spends a lot of time tracking down responsible parties, Mack said. Some programs require owners to designate a responsible party within 30 miles of the city.
-- Regular inspections for rental units. Some cities require inspections every year, others every three years. In one program, units that pass two annual inspections are not inspected again for three years unless a complaint is filed.
-- Program costs paid by owners. Some cities charge a flat fee per rental unit, while others charge for registration and inspections separately. One city charges a reduced fee for multi-unit buildings if all inspections are scheduled at the same time within one building.
Mack said such requirements would improve the quality of the city's rental stock, reduce safety complaints, stabilize property values in neighborhoods with both rental and single-family homes and speed resolution of problems.
Feb 9, 2013 at 4:17 p.m.
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YES. A step in the right direction.
Feb 9, 2013 at 3:54 p.m.
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tz7v9s, I wonder what mechanism you would use for the city to exercise control over tenants on behalf of the landlord -- that the landlord can't do right now, like pursue eviction and sue for damages above the security deposit. Please explain.
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We've made some great strides with the chronic nuisnace ordinance, as detailed in prior articles, but of course it has its limitations -- such as waiting for a chronic nuisance to develop and receive documentation. That addresses the worst of the worst. The program the city is considering would exert pressure on a group of landlords who are nearly the worst, but also provide incentives for others to step up and do more than the bare minimum, even if they do things like screen their tenants well. If they feel they can't afford the upkeep necessary, then they can sell their properties to someone who will put the investment into our housing stock to retain it for the future. We can't just let it all fall down.
Feb 9, 2013 at 3:31 p.m.
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So what about those renters that have good relationships with their landlord? Because they are renters that means their privacy doesn't matter and the city can just come in and snoop around because they *MIGHT* find a code violation?
How about *ALL* residential properties be inspected? After all, I am sure that rentals do not have the monopoly on code violations. I am sure that there are plenty of owner occupied homes that have problems.
Feb 9, 2013 at 3:05 p.m.
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Yes, crackdown on irresponsible, profiteering slumlords. And all landlords should take responsibility for managing who they approve and what tenants do once they're in the units.
Too many landlords think that renting out units means they can just lay back and rake in the dollars. And too many of them won't be firm with problem tenants.
Feb 9, 2013 at 11:52 a.m.
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Inspections, fine. Landlord fees NO. If the city wants this then use fines for those that do not maintain their properties. The city knows who and where those units exist that are a problem. We all know that $30 per property is just a start. When you own more than 10 homes the taxes are enough of a burden.
Feb 9, 2013 at 10:51 a.m.
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vnvet - grow up!
Feb 9, 2013 at 8:39 a.m.
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Janesville has a subway ?
Feb 9, 2013 at 7:41 a.m.
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Just so tennants know that all additional costs to landlords are passed along to them in higher rents. Be carefull what you wish for in terms of regulations on others.
Feb 9, 2013 at 12:34 a.m.
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If we're going to make the landlords responsible for maintaining their units, there should be equal responsibilities for the tennents to do their part as well.
Without controls for both parties, this could give renters the ability to trash the properity and the landlord responsible to clean up after them.
Feb 8, 2013 at 11:42 p.m.
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Every rental unit in the city needs to be inspected. I know of plenty of rentals that have holes in walls where the washer/dryer is located and is in a small closet which doesn't allow for any ventilation or circulation around the appliance; doors that don't shut properly or seal and allow bugs, hot and cold air enter the home freely, lack of insulation, outdated wiring, poor or no maintenance, mold issues, etc. There's no excuse for any landlord to have properties that are in such a terrible state. Most people won't complain because they don't feel anything will be done or they have complained in the past to no avail. Some won't because they don't want rent going up. There needs to be more accountablity for landlords in order to identify "slum lords" and improve rentals and the neighborhoods they are located in especially in Look West and 4th Ward areas.
Feb 8, 2013 at 7:59 p.m.
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Please do this. The worst part of living in older neighborhoods is rental properties - the large Victorian houses that have been run thoroughly into the ground and are now used as slum properties to take advantage of government subsidized tenants. Improving slum properties improves neighborhoods, and ultimately leads to lower crime rates (there's been interesting research in the effect of 'context' on crime - context being the overall environmental conditions. Long story short, a clean subway without graffiti and turnstile jumping yields much, much lower crime rates than the exact same subway with those environmental conditions for example).
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