2022.02.08 WS Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Practice Tip For clarity, in developing a rental licensing program, a locality might consider specifying that an owner’s failure to obtain a license is a valid defense that a tenant can use against eviction proceedings. 19A Guide to Proactive Rental Inspection Programschangelabsolutions.org which may restrict refinancing or sale of the property. The property owner is assessed a monthly administrative fee per rental unit. To clear the title of the REAP Notice, the property must come into compliance with codes and all fees due the Housing Department must be paid.138 The Housing Department contracts with several nonprofit organizations to provide outreach to tenants about the program and to assist landlords in expediting compliance.139 Registration as a Prerequisite to Eviction Actions Anne Arundel County, MD, requires that property owners obtain a rental license before renting residential property consisting of two or more units.140 In an eviction action brought by an owner who had failed to obtain the required license, the Maryland Court of Appeals, the state’s supreme court, held that the owner could not evict a tenant before complying with the county licensing requirement.141 Monitoring Substandard Properties In 2007, faced with a backlog of unresolved substandard housing cases and a slow rate of compliance, the city of Lansing created a new program to track and monitor unsafe and substandard housing: the Neighborhood Enhancement Action Team (NEAT). NEAT tracks properties that have been ‘tagged’ as unsafe for habitation based on internal or external conditions. A tagged property is transferred to the NEAT program after 90 days of noncompliance. For every month that the violations are not addressed, the landlord incurs a $150 fee. Property owners are not charged the fee if they can demonstrate progress toward habitability. This incentive has had a dramatic effect on the number of tagged properties in the city, which has steadily decreased from 740 in 2007 to 362 in 2013 (224 of which were NEAT properties). At the start of the program, about half of the properties had been tagged for 5-7 years; ten months into the program, the average length of time a property was tagged had dropped to 147 days.142 Funding PRI Programs Most systematic rental inspection programs are funded, solely or in part, by fees levied against property owners. Localities commonly impose fines and penalties for housing code violations or other program violations. Examples of fee schedules from a number of localities are described below. Registration, license, and program fees: Localities commonly charge registration, program, licensing, or certificate fees to cover the costs of implementing and administrating a proactive rental inspection program. These fees are often charged based on the size of the rental property. For example, they may be determined based on the number of rental units; or apportioned at different rates for small, medium or large buildings; or assessed by square footage. Localities may charge these fees on a one-time or recurring basis, depending on the nature of the fee and the length of the program cycle. For example, Antioch, CA charges a one-time initial registration fee when a property enters the program.143 In contrast, Santa Cruz, CA charges an annual registration fee and requires that landlords annually reregister all rental units.144 CDBG FUNDING Code enforcement is an eligible expense under Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which are provided by HUD on a formula basis to entitlement communities (cities and urban counties), and to states for non-entitlement communities.136 The International Code Council recently published guidelines for code officials regarding the use of CDBG funds for this purpose.137