Landlords voice opposition to building codes, inspections
The possible adoption of building and maintenance codes that would require inspection of all rental properties is creating quite a stir among Red Oak landlords.
After concern was expressed at the last city council meeting, City Administrator Brad Wright and Red Oak Mayor Bill Billings invited the executive director, John McCurdy, and inspector, Dave Riedemann, from the Southwest Iowa Planning Council to speak to citizens about what inspections will entail.
If adopted by the city council, the codes will require rental properties to be inspected every three years. They will also require that all new buildings and additions go through an inspection process, which averages around nine inspections per structure. Each inspection will have a fee.
Landlords in the city feel they are being singled out because rental properties will have mandatory inspections. Other properties will only be inspected if there is a visible need for it or a complaint is filed with the city.
At Thursday night’s meeting with McCurdy and Riedemann, nearly 40 citizens attended to voice their concerns; however, with the current quality of housing in Red Oak, Wright and Billings feel this is the best method.
“Obviously, the goal is to improve the quality of housing in Red Oak,” Wright said. “Certainly, the goal is not revenue, the goal is not to create hardship for anyone. The goal is to the people living in our community better living environments.”
Questions were raised as to where the money spent for inspections would go. Roughly 90 percent of inspection fees will go to SWIPCO for inspection fees, administrative costs, travel expenses and more. The 10 percent of fees that are collected by the city will cover administrative costs.
Some landlords, like Sherry Bourlon of B & B Rentals, feel the fees will be a burden on the landlords who provide nice housing for renters.
“We end up having to pay the same fees, inconvenience our tenants, all the same problems as the bad landlords,” Bourlon said. “All that makes me want to do is sell all the houses I have and get out of the business, you know, because of the hassle. I already have enough hassle with the tenants, and now I got to have hassle from the city, when I’m doing the right thing. And we work really hard on these to provide a good service for Red Oak and I’ve been doing this for 26 years and now I’m going to be out another $4,000 for these inspections.”
Billings also agrees with Wright that the codes are necessary to improve the quality of housing in the city. During Thursday night’s meeting, Billings told the audience he is “very, very selective” when deciding where to take executives and business people in town. He also said when they leave to tour the town on their own, they often tell him “we’re not interested in Red Oak, Iowa.”
Tyler Jennings, of Red Oak, raised the issue of privacy for homeowners. Many attendees did not agree with the fact that mandatory inspections will be done if complaints are filed, other than every three years for rentals.
“What are the ramifications if I say ‘no, don’t come in. This is my property, get the hell off,’” Jennings said. “What are you going to do about it?”
Wright said city officials will then have the right to bring in law enforcement officers and the issue could possibly go to court for failure to comply.
Billings then turned the meeting away from the “why or why not” to the process and specific questions of how the inspections will operate.
As of now, it is planned to section the city off into three areas and implement the mandatory inspections on a three-year rotating schedule so that not all properties will be inspected at once.
Riedemann said he is not looking at every code to see if it is up-to-date, he is mostly looking for things that could become a threat.
“I’m not going to go in there and look for every code,” Riedemann said. “I just don’t do that. I’m practical.”
He said he will be looking at simple things such as electrical, foundation, living environment and more.
During inspections, a landlord or property manager will need to be available. Riedemann will be able to discuss issues on the spot if there are any.
Landlords and property owners will have sufficient time to fix problems. Riedemann also said he will alert property owners to issues that will be costly to them in the future.
The ordinances will most likely go before the city council in an upcoming meeting. They will decide whether to adopt the codes as a way to improve housing quality in the city.
“If we didn’t have so many crappy properties in town, we wouldn’t even be looking at this. Bottom line,” Billings said.