Absolutely not. I have a good landlord. She tells friends who have not-so-good landlords and have complaints to call the city on their landlords when they don't do what they're supposed to do (and how quickly repairs happen then). Why not just make sure residents are given the contact number for the city so they can call the city in when needed? This isn't a nanny state, but people should be aware of their rights and use them when needed. This is the same city that "forgot" to give anyone in our buildings the city residents' survey. If it only wants to "save us from ourselves" (tax us through higher rents), can it at least get it together enough to include renters on all city mailings?

Perhaps we can simply adjust the parameters of the existing system to be self-funded. Landlords are fined for each violation (at least a minimum level that would cover the costs of the inspection), with fines increasing based on the severity of the violation and history of violations (let's give up on the 'never-ending series of polite letters requesting that maybe they could do something if they so desire at some point eventually'). In this way, only the problem landlords experience any financial or scheduling inconvenience, and the good landlords are left alone. And expand the rules such that after a certain number of recurrent violations, a landlord loses the right to rent a property for a period of time (providing an overriding alignment of the landlord's priorities with the city's). Slum properties are a problem in Janesville, and simply ignoring the problem (perhaps because they aren't in your particular neighborhood) does nothing to help the overall state of the city in the long term.

Why should there be inspections at all? People should be educated enough to know if they are living in a dangerous place. That is kind of a common sense thing.

I agree with the councils decision. I own my home now, but over the past 30 years I have rented different places in Janesville. When something needed fixing I called the landlord and it was repaired. If the city wants to do something proactively, then I would suggest getting a list of all the rental addresses and mailing each one the city government phone numbers needed to file a complaint. This could possibly be done once a year at a much lower cost than what was proposed. No invasion of privacy for the tenants.

I think they made the right decision. The city will inspect if a complaint it made. So if a tenant is having problems getting things fixed by the landlord, all they have to do is call the city. Inspection of every rental in the city is excessive, and the reality is that the increased fees associated with that are going to be passed on to the tenants. I think the city council made the right decision here. There is no point in subjecting every landlord and tenant to this when only a fraction are the problem.

Sure I support annual apartment inspections. After, of course, we have annual televised inspections of the homes of the city council members.

Seriously -- where does it say in the constitution that if you rent your dwelling, you must have a stranger come in once a year? Your home is your castle, and the government is not morally entitled to come into it without your consent or a darn good reason.

Yes

I think they voted the right way.

Everyone is worried about what the landlords think. What about the tenants? This is an invasion of privacy. And not all rental units are apartments. We have been renting a single family home in a nice neighborhood for 12 years. I don't want strangers coming in!