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Rental Inspections and Licensing Policy Discussion <br />City Council Review; 2-8-22 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Page 5 <br />Mounds View ........................................................................................................................................................ 2 (no specifics given) <br />North St. Paul .......................................................................................................................... 3 admin; inspections are outsourced <br />Otsego ............................................................................................................................................................ 2 admin and 3 inspectors <br />Shoreview ............................................................................................................................................................. 1 (no specifics given) <br />Should Council ultimately direct staff to amend code to require licensure of all rentals, we would complete an <br />assessment of available staffing vis a vis anticipated additional inspection work, and make recommendations on <br />needed staffing adjustments as may be needed. We would likely want to continue the City’s current team approach to <br />multi-family building inspections (which include a zoning perspective, fire perspective, and public safety <br />perspective), but that may be overkill when extending inspections to single-family and duplex units. Bottom line, <br />there are many ways to approach structuring an inspection program, and if staffing changes are needed, we would <br />strive to ensure that all changes would be fully funded by the expanded licensing program. <br />INSPECTION TEAM FEEDBACK <br /> Since starting the current approach to the licensing and inspection program to involve zoning, fire, and public <br />safety; our team has found that fire and safety calls in our multi-family buildings have decreased. <br /> Per our team, it’s important to recognize that licensing and inspection is not a “gotcha” program. Yes the City <br />will require needed repairs, but more often the inspection becomes more about educating tenants and owners <br />about “Healthy Home” matters such as lead, mold, smoke alarms, CO2, etc. Often times our tenants and <br />landlords just don’t know what they don’t know. One example: our team has encouraged many of our buildings <br />to install “stove top fire stops” which help to put out stove fires before they can become a major problem. Stove <br />fire calls have dramatically reduced following this educational push. <br /> Specific to public safety, our team thinks it would be great to be able to deal with landlords at problem houses <br />like the City does at apartments, and they believe neighbors would view this as a quality of life improvement. <br /> In recent memory, a fire in a single-family rental nearly had tragic consequences for the residents. Post-fire <br />assessment revealed this dangerous situation could have been avoided (or significantly lessened) had the home’s <br />numerous issues been identified and addressed through the same licensing and inspection required of our multi- <br />family units. <br /> The City currently hosts quarterly meetings with owners and landlords of our multi-family complexes to provide <br />continuing education on rental maintenance. While these meetings wouldn’t directly apply to Duplexes and <br />Single Family Homes, we could envision crafting a similar educational program for duplex and single family <br />home renters & landlords (i.e. a quarterly email newsletter to provide similar educational materials and <br />reminders). <br />