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Updated almost 16 years ago, 02/05/2009
What is this annual inspection deal?
Our city council is trying to register all landlords and have out of state landlords appoint a local agent who will take service from them for codes violations, grant access, fix any problems etc.
The excuse they use for the proposed ordinance is they can't find the real owner, especially if they're out of state. Funny, how the tax people find everyone they need to find.
Landlords objected to the idea of signing away their right to object to entry by the government and the word "annual inspection" rolled off of the codes administrator as he was explaining "probable cause" "warrants" etc.
I read where some places have annual inspections of rentals to see if they are in compliance with codes. This guy says he could find 50% of all rentals out of compliance.
This is scary. Do any of you have annual inspections of rentals? Registration of landlords? Registration of tenants?
I'd love to hear more.
Yes, I had a four plex in Florida. I was consistently nailed for loose hand rails, smoke detectors with the batteries taken out, Fire extinguishers out of date or not in place, loose door knobs, typical renter mentality stuff, the lines in the parking lot were not dark enough one year. That was a good one, everyone could see them, parked in between them, but if I did not have a fresh coat of reflective line paint on before the reinspect, I would have to get permits from the city and have a contractor with a license and bond with the county apply them. The inspector made me feel like he was doing me a favor. Was very happy to sell it. OH, can not forget, I got to pay for this great service.
Lynn,
FIGHT! Get your fellow landlords, REIA, and others to help you fight this crap. If you make enough noise, you will win. I would point out that the cost of the registration and inspections will raise the rents on low income tenants. Talk to the newspaper! File lawsuits against the city. Get your state REIA involved. Do whatever it takes!
Our local REIA has successfully fought our city on many issues. It just takes effort!
Mike
Mike is absolutely right. The City of Flint relentlessly tries to pull more and more of these same stunts against investment properties. Without our local REIA, all of it would go through without a hitch. Our association has taken them to court, fought hard at city council meetings, marched into the mayor's office, and flat out refused to pay some of the outlandish fees. There's absolutely strength in numbers.
These are popping up in various places around the country.
Yes, fight them. However, I will not buy in any area with this type of harassment mentality and I have sold out in areas after this stuff came to pass. In every case the number of available rentals has dropped and the rental prices have gone up. Then, people move, and the owners end up looking like slumlords in a never ending cycle of code violations until they throw up their hands and often walk away.
We already have this in our market and have to recertify every 2 years.
The latest action the city council is trying to pull is a "non-vacancy ordinance". This ordinance would compel the owner to register with the city and allow an inspector to verify that a property has been secured and boarded-up, for a fee of course.
we have this in my town also $65 a year and they do an outside inspection only
it is total crap and just another way to soak us "rich " landlords,,, if they were truly concerned about rental up keep they dont need a yearly inspection for that code inforcement officers go around marking up fines all day long on any house especially bank owned vacant houses they know it will have to be paid by the bank before it can sell
Yep. Same problem. We have to first get a dwelling permit, which requires an inspection by the health dept nazi's, then we have a yearly inspection after that for the cost of $84. We have tried to fight them and have not been successful. The latest issue that has come up in the inspection is that all smoke alarms must be hard wired together, so if one goes off, they all go off.
I flipped when I heard that and called the inspector, he said not to worry about it and if they try to force the issue, HD sells battery operated ones for $50 bucks a piece and just move them from one house to another when it's time for the inspection. Oh. if you fail the inspection. It cost another $35 bucks to get reinspected.