The City Council has finally approved a new proactive rental inspection regime designed to reduce the incidence of non-compliance with code regulations by rented properties in central Durham. According to the map (below), most of the downtown area is covered. As I said previously, this program is good for the city as a whole and for our neighborhood in particular, given that almost 50% of all houses in this area rentals. The move to impose regular rental inspections rather than simply responding to complains is likely to improve appearance of the neighborhood rental properties and make it more difficult for the so-called "slumlords" to systematically undermine city regulations.
The Harald Sun article providing further context for this story is reprinted after the break.
DURHAM –
City Council members voted 5-1 on Monday to approve an ordinance that
will ensure rental properties in 13 square miles of central Durham
undergo regular housing-code inspections.
The decision came after Neighborhood Improvement Services Director Constance Stancil and her staff reduced the size of the proposed target area by about two thirds, to focus it more tightly on neighborhoods with crime and housing problems.
City Attorney Patrick Baker said the move was a response to complaints from a trade group for local real estate agents who felt the initial, 40-square-mile target area improperly “blanketed most of the city.”
As passed, the new program’s target area covers 12 percent of the city. The initial proposal would have covered 37 percent.
Stancil said she believes her inspectors can cover the rental units in the 13 square miles in 11 to 12 months.
She added that once it’s covered, she would most likely ask the council for permission “to move into another area.”
City officials have to limit the target area of the program in some way because state law, approved last year, forbids them from setting up a periodic inspection program that covers all of Durham at the same time.
Monday’s vote also came after council members grappled with a request from the Durham Regional Association of Realtors that they delay action on the proposal for two months.
The delay, association lawyer Dan Milam said, would give NIS an incentive to address complaints from the group’s members about the city’s minimum housing code.
Real estate agents and landlords have, among other things, questioned whether the standards the code lays out for kitchens, insulation and electrical service are too strict.
The new inspections program is supposed to give the housing code more teeth than NIS has been able to manage in the course of responding to tenant complaints.
But “if this is passed tonight there will be no incentive, no carrot and stick for NIS” to address the problems the Realtors group sees with the code, Milam said.
Stancil answered that her department is establishing an ad-hoc committee, to include real estate agents and other interests, to go review the code and suggest changes. She said the idea is for it to make recommendations to City Manager Tom Bonfield in April.
The code itself dates from the mid-1960s, she added.
Initially, Councilman Eugene Brown and Mayor Bill Bell seemed inclined to go along with the Realtors group’s request for delay.
Brown, a real estate agent in private life, said the enforcement effort was “putting the cart before the horse” given the need for a housing code “based around common sense.”
Bell was more concerned about obtain political buy in from real estate agents and landlords, most of them at least.
Sixty day “doesn’t seem to me to be a long time” when “we have [persons] who are valid stakeholders we’re trying to bring on board,” Bell said, adding that he understood there was little likelihood of gaining across-the-board support from the industry.
Stancil, however, said many tenants simply won’t complain about housing conditions because they’re afraid of crossing their landlord.
A previous attempt by NIS to inspect units, entering them with tenants’ permission, dried up after landlords started telling tenants “not to let us in,” she said.
The new program is different from the previous initiative because it includes a mandate for inspections, one landlords can get out of by telling the city they’re complying with the housing code.
NIS also will have the power to conduct inspections for cause when it knows of violations or hears complaints.
Stancil last month told the council that some 63 percent of the rental units in the six neighborhoods her inspectors will start with have code violations visible from the street.
Bonfield pointed out that the housing code and enforcement are separate issues. He also said there was no need to delay approving the inspections program to give NIS an incentive to review the housing code.
“I can assure you I will give her all the incentive she needs” to complete the review, he said.
That pledge sufficed for Bell, who said he would take Bonfield at his word that NIS would follow up.
Brown, however, wasn’t swayed and voted against the ordinance.
The decision came after Neighborhood Improvement Services Director Constance Stancil and her staff reduced the size of the proposed target area by about two thirds, to focus it more tightly on neighborhoods with crime and housing problems.
City Attorney Patrick Baker said the move was a response to complaints from a trade group for local real estate agents who felt the initial, 40-square-mile target area improperly “blanketed most of the city.”
As passed, the new program’s target area covers 12 percent of the city. The initial proposal would have covered 37 percent.
Stancil said she believes her inspectors can cover the rental units in the 13 square miles in 11 to 12 months.
She added that once it’s covered, she would most likely ask the council for permission “to move into another area.”
City officials have to limit the target area of the program in some way because state law, approved last year, forbids them from setting up a periodic inspection program that covers all of Durham at the same time.
Monday’s vote also came after council members grappled with a request from the Durham Regional Association of Realtors that they delay action on the proposal for two months.
The delay, association lawyer Dan Milam said, would give NIS an incentive to address complaints from the group’s members about the city’s minimum housing code.
Real estate agents and landlords have, among other things, questioned whether the standards the code lays out for kitchens, insulation and electrical service are too strict.
The new inspections program is supposed to give the housing code more teeth than NIS has been able to manage in the course of responding to tenant complaints.
But “if this is passed tonight there will be no incentive, no carrot and stick for NIS” to address the problems the Realtors group sees with the code, Milam said.
Stancil answered that her department is establishing an ad-hoc committee, to include real estate agents and other interests, to go review the code and suggest changes. She said the idea is for it to make recommendations to City Manager Tom Bonfield in April.
The code itself dates from the mid-1960s, she added.
Initially, Councilman Eugene Brown and Mayor Bill Bell seemed inclined to go along with the Realtors group’s request for delay.
Brown, a real estate agent in private life, said the enforcement effort was “putting the cart before the horse” given the need for a housing code “based around common sense.”
Bell was more concerned about obtain political buy in from real estate agents and landlords, most of them at least.
Sixty day “doesn’t seem to me to be a long time” when “we have [persons] who are valid stakeholders we’re trying to bring on board,” Bell said, adding that he understood there was little likelihood of gaining across-the-board support from the industry.
Stancil, however, said many tenants simply won’t complain about housing conditions because they’re afraid of crossing their landlord.
A previous attempt by NIS to inspect units, entering them with tenants’ permission, dried up after landlords started telling tenants “not to let us in,” she said.
The new program is different from the previous initiative because it includes a mandate for inspections, one landlords can get out of by telling the city they’re complying with the housing code.
NIS also will have the power to conduct inspections for cause when it knows of violations or hears complaints.
Stancil last month told the council that some 63 percent of the rental units in the six neighborhoods her inspectors will start with have code violations visible from the street.
Bonfield pointed out that the housing code and enforcement are separate issues. He also said there was no need to delay approving the inspections program to give NIS an incentive to review the housing code.
“I can assure you I will give her all the incentive she needs” to complete the review, he said.
That pledge sufficed for Bell, who said he would take Bonfield at his word that NIS would follow up.
Brown, however, wasn’t swayed and voted against the ordinance.
The Appointed Holiday regime has always reported that any holiday property proprietors can take any holiday rental loss income from other places
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