Question for rental property owners
 

I have this property in a small town. The local government enacted an ordinance requiring the owners of rental property to register their property and have it inspected annually for minimum living standards. Both registering and the inspection come with a fee. They won't give me an exemption since this property is annually inspected by the public housing authority (HUD). The local gov't says they "catch" things the county inspectors don't.

Any of you ever dealt with or even heard of something like this? The town is in the rust belt and depressed with around 4k residents.

What pisses me off most is that my place looks 10x better than the average place in this god forsaken burgh. Honestly the borough should make every owner do this if theyr'e really concerned about minumum living standards.

Anyone know of any precedent on the books that says this shit isn't legal? I mean why would they shake down the people investing in their town who are trying to bring prosperity back?

Are you a slumlord?

Not yet.

:winkwink:

there is nothing you can do just pay it :2 cents::2 cents::2 cents:

Yeah, you're at their mercy. I own a few rental properties and ran into a similar problem and gave them some shit. now they write me up if there's a lightbulb out. Don't mess with them - they can and will make your life a living hell.

View it as a positive. If you are meeting/exceeding all local/state requirements your tenants have nothing to bitch about and in event of someone being injured, fire, etc you are obviously not negligent since you are meeting all new inspection requirements.

:2 cents:

Edit; I would think outdated and non-inspected tenant alterations on the electrical's is their main focus.

Their main focus is collecting money. :2 cents:

Badmin, consider running for public office in your town. IMHO that is the only way to defeating the ordinance in the future, and change things to your liking.

Obviously it sucks. Try to play nice. Also depending on the number of places, take notes about what they look at and try to get ahead of them. It just goes a lot smoother if you pre inspect.

I see one town after another doing this to both long term and especially short term "vacation" rentals.

Air B&B is shaking up the the market like uber is and many are not happy.

Good points being made here. I realize I'm not going to get around it and plan on paying. I don't want to get made an example of and get dinged for stupid shit either so I won't bitch too loud. Was just fishing for ideas on how to get the law repealed if possible. Thanks!

Annapolis, MD has something similar.

It's really no big deal. Well, at least the inspectors there are cool. They are mostly just looking for health and life stuff.

I do find that they always put one or two things on the list so it looks like they're doing something, but it's always minor stuff that can be fixed in front of them.

Smoke detectors are usually a huge thing. Make sure you have 1 for every 1k sf of living space and also one on every level, including in any basement.

Lot's of it is common landlord stuff.

this is just another tax

All this is absolutely true :thumbsup

This is their other focus, & in the meantime, people cannot make their business grow, as the taxes continue to take profits :(

renting section 8? :winkwink:

I caught that too.

If you are renting to section 8 people, you damn well better be ready to get your property inspected. The government is not going to give you money if your shit ain't right.