Letter to the RUCO Board 12/31/06
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*In response to Joel Landau's second request (below), the Council adopted a motion that will close a major loophole in housing code enforcement. Landlords will no longer be able to delay making repairs by transferring ownership of the property.
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December 31, 2006
Mr. Phillips,
I’m writing to you not only in your role as a City Councilmember, but also as Chair of the RUCO board. I have a suggestion for strengthening Housing Code enforcement which I hope you and the City Council will consider. I’ve talked with Butch Simmons about this and he believes it would be useful. Mr. Simmons said I could mention that he’ll bring this up at the next RUCO Board meeting.
At a recent Council meeting, a speaker complained about the rental property on Rolling Road that has been a recurrent problem for years. This problem is not unique to the house on Rolling Road – it’s a situation where the landlord, upon an inspection, makes the minimal repairs needed to avoid further legal action. The property is then allowed to deteriorate, sometimes for years, before cause is found for another inspection to take place. (As you know, many tenants are reluctant to complain to the City for fear of landlord reprisal.) With the model new RUCO ordinance taking effect, each rental property has to be inspected a minimum of every 5 years to maintain certification. Still, severe deterioration can take place during a 5 year period.
My suggestion is that once a property reaches a specified stage of disrepair, that it then become mandatory that it be inspected annually. The trigger point for annual inspection would be set so that it would only affect those properties that are chronically allowed to deteriorate, so to minimize the burden on the Housing Inspectors staff, and also to avoid additional burden on the majority of landlords that keep their properties in good repair. Please consider whether this would be a useful, affordable tool in preventing the long-term neglect of rental property.
I’d also like to inform you of another enforcement suggestion. I was on the Greensboro Housing Authority’s Bus Tour this Fall. During the Tour I asked Inspector Dan Reynolds how enforcement efforts were going. He said they were good over all, but then also mentioned what he thought was perhaps the biggest problem he ran into. Some of the landlords who are chronic violators have found they can postpone repairs a long time by transferring title of the property. When they’ve been ordered to make repairs, they’ll wait to just before the deadline and then transfer or sell the property to a family member, another company they own, or another landlord. The Inspector then has to start all over with a new Title search, new notification of all parties concerned, and then a new time period for the repairs to be made, only to see the property get sold or transferred again at the last minute. Through this process, some landlords postpone repairs for a long time; meanwhile the tenants are living in sub-standard housing.
I suggested this loophole might be closed if the City was allowed to waive issuing a new notice when a property with an outstanding repair order is sold or transferred to a new owner. It would be the seller’s responsibility to disclose any outstanding repair orders, and the seller would still be legally liable for the repairs unless the new buyer agreed to take them on. (This is similar to what happens if I put my house up for sale – I’m required to disclose any problems I know about; the buyer can then say ok or negotiate with me as to who will fix the problem). Mr. Reynolds thought this would be a useful enforcement tool for the City to have. I suggested this idea to 2 of our State Representatives who were also on the Bus Tour: Alma Adams and Pricey Harrison. They were both interested and agreed to pursue this at the State level in the upcoming session. Please contact them if you have input on this matter.
Sincerely,
Joel Landau
6 Collwood Ct. / Greensboro, NC
