Privacy Rights Trump Municipal Rental Inspections – Finally!

A tenant has privacy rights, which is something many municipalities and many landlords seem to have forgotten or overlooked. It’s possible we’ve all been watching too many TV shows, and we’ve seen too many investigators sneak into apartments, homes and businesses, searching for evidence of a crime.

Municipalities have an interest in protecting the public, and many have passed ordinances requiring annual inspections for rental properties, usually as part of the process a landlord must pursue to get a rental dwelling permit. These are SAFETY inspections, not searches for evidence in a criminal investigation.

At long last, there’s one municipality which will no longer be able to enforce its 2014 rental inspection requirement as-is. That’s Portsmouth, Ohio. On September 30, 2015, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and presiding Judge Susan J. Dlott determined that mandatory rental inspections without a warrant violate the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution.

In her court order, Judge Dlott included case law quoting the Fourth Amendment as follows:
“The Fourth Amendment provides that “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” U.S.Const. Amend. IV

In my own words now, I believe mandatory rental inspections without a legal warrant to search the property have always been a privacy violation. I’m a landlord, and from time to time I have been a tenant in temporary rental homes. So, you could say I’m on both sides of the fence.

And from my vantage points on both sides of the fence, I can say I’ve always thought mandatory rental inspections were an invasion of privacy. It’s good to know at least one United States District Court Judge agrees with me!

This is a good time in history for the Fourth Amendment to be clarified, and for the basis of search and seizure to be legally justified. Without going too far afield politically, the privacy rights we have enjoyed as a nation are threatened in many ways now, so it’s good to see the Portsmouth, Ohio tenant’s rights to privacy are being restored. I hope Judge Dlott’s order becomes a national trend.

Of course, obtaining a legal warrant to enter and search a rental property is one option that may become available to municipalities desiring to routinely inspect rental properties. But let’s think about that for a moment… What would be the “proximate cause” necessitating the search warrant? Safety?

Obtaining a search warrant for a routine safety inspection doesn’t seem too likely. If the health and safety of tenants is legitimately threatened by property conditions, in most areas it becomes a matter for the local (city or county) health department, doesn’t it?

At least so far, I can’t see grounds for a municipality to obtain a search warrant for a routine rental inspection, can you?