City Charging More for Rental Registration Than Ordinance Calls For

[Alex L.]

Like a lot of cities, one of the ones I happen to invest in charges an annual $50 registration/renewal fee per each SFH. Typically I pay it, no questions asked, because why would I have any questions? However for some reason I decided to comb through the city oridinance out of boredom, and found that there's actually a code that states SFH's are to be registered/renewed annually at $25. Confused, I went back to look at the letter the city sends out to landlords every year, which states $50 for SFHs... and then goes on to reference a code which only lays out late fees and violation charges.

Wondering if anyone's ever ran into a similar issue where the ordinance is different than what they're actually doing or calling for. I'm in the process of reaching out to the city admin who handles this area to see if I could either be (a) reimbursed or (b) have registration waived for the next handful of years. Not sure what to expect because it's a small town and these old-timers hardly know anything (i.e. I've tried to ask them about building a house on a lot I owned, or simply putting a manufactured home on the lot, and they had absolutely no clue on what information to give me... their answer to the latter question was, "I don't know," after 40 minutes in the zoning/building admin office).