Tenant rights organization Springfield Tenants Unite and others have pushed for a rental inspection program in Springfield. A pilot project may soon test Springfield’s draft program in the West Central neighborhood.
Most Springfield residents rent. Just 44.6% own their homes, and that number has fallen in the last decade. High profile and headline grabbing issues with companies like 417 Rentals and Millenia Housing, which owns Jenny Lind Hall, exemplify the issues organizers say arise from bad and absent landlords. They point to something like Kansas City's Healthy Homes Rental Inspection Program as a potential solution.
During a lunch session Tuesday, Springfield city leaders took in a presentation on a pilot rental inspection program from Building Development Services Director Martin Gugel.
Gugel detailed an 18 month test run in the West Central neighborhood that would be reviewed again after a year has passed to chart its impact. His team would spend part of those first 18 months educating landlords and tenants, followed by inspecting 1541 single occupant and duplex properties in the neighborhood on 25 health and safety measures.
If a residence fails to meet expectations repairs would be requested and reinspection fees would be issued, with increasing penalties for failing to address concerns.
As drafted the inspection program would ask landlords to register with the city and pay an annual fee of $35 and $50 fees for reinspection. The full program would be expanded to include apartments and multi-family buildings. Rental properties would be inspected every five years with exemptions for brand new buildings. Landlords would be expected to reside in the city or work with a property manager located in the city, with some exceptions. This provision prompted concern from many on council that the program was overreaching.
Gugel said this part of the program is meant to help address nuisance properties and absent landlords. He said they need to be able hold non-compliant landlords accountable and that starts by having someone to hold accountable. Councilman Brandon Jenson suggested that with the pilot program the city can see how well the provision works and if it has unintended consequences.
Jenson steered away from hypotheticals and asked Gugel if in his experience having a local representative allows issues to be resolved in a faster fashion. Gugel said it made the process “more effective and more efficient.”
Gugel was also asked about mold. Organizers have pushed for mold testing to be apart of the inspection process, but he explained the limitations of what his department can do based on building codes. He said there is “no standard to test for it, but if we’re looking at the building envelope issues, leaks, moisture issues within the building, things like that. If those are addressed, its kind of like with a fire, you’re taking away the fuel.”
Much of the discussion centered on addressing problem landlords and nuisance properties without punishing good landlords. Councilmen Derek Lee spoke to that point.
"The first thing is, we’ve got to acknowledge that most of the rental property in Springfield is great property, and that we should come from that and not from: ‘its going to be bad and we’re going to have problems and we’ve got to get them’.”
In June Springfield City Council set aside money for the pilot program. At least one council person in attendance Tuesday, Craig Hosmer, suggested he would like to take implementing the pilot program up for a vote at an upcoming meeting.