The Sedalia Rental Inspection Committee’s meeting Wednesday was a full hour of productive discussion with plenty of constructive criticism of the draft ordinance.
Several key points were brought up by both the committee and city staff during Wednesday’s meeting, one being some of the wording in the “Purpose” section of the draft. Along with an overall purpose statement, the ordinance includes five items to “strive” for, and member Kim Welch questioned “To provide minimum standards for the maintenance of existing residential rental buildings.”
“How is that different from our current residential codes?” Welch asked. “Because we have codes already in place that are the minimum standard, are they not?”
City Attorney Anne Gardner clarified what the ordinance is meant to do — complying with the rental inspection ordinance means a landlord can rent a unit, but it’s possible the unit is not up to every city residential code. The unit could be rented while the landlord works on other code violations that do not put a renter at immediate risk, such as fixing gutters.
“(Other residential codes) still need to be addressed, it’s just not preventing you from putting a renter in the property,” Gardner said. “To make sure those things (in the rental inspection ordinance) are satisfied because they’re dealing with safety issues. … We drew these things out (for the ordinance) that have to be complied with — the safety, the electrical, the fire codes.”
Gardner said she will work on the wording and inclusion of more information to clarify that point, as it is “an important distinction for renters and landlords.”
Another key issue was brought up by Dave Wiedeman. The draft ordinance includes a section on “Notice of violation,” which states the city will send a letter to the property owner listing any violations found during the inspection within 14 days of inspection. He said two weeks is simply too long for a landlord to wait.
“I have talked with some of the large landlords in town and they come straight up out of their seat on that. This is one of their major concerns,” Wiedeman said.
Both Gardner and Jamie Bethel, the city’s housing specialist, pointed out that it was their understanding the inspector would be able to give the landlord a report of any violations found as soon as the inspection is over, and that the written notice is just a formality so landlords wouldn’t really be waiting that long.
Gardner suggested allowing the landlord to correct any inspection violations within a certain time frame without getting a formal notice of violation. Member Terri Hunter also suggested the idea of breaking inspection violations into categories, such as critical and minor.
The draft ordinance includes a section on landlords voluntarily obtaining a rental permit from the city, which would essentially allow the city to register rental properties. A bill has been filed in the Missouri House that would prohibit such a requirement, but it has not been voted on.
Both city staff and committee members noted that most landlords who would voluntarily sign up are probably not the landlords with properties in poor condition and that it would be difficult to get everyone to obtain a permit.
Welch again brought up her proposal of a Safe Housing Alliance with the city and the Sedalia Landlords Association. She said the alliance would provide incentives for landlords who register, such as being on a list of landlords in good standing with the city on the city website, and possibly even giving those landlords free inspections or permits. City Administrator Gary Edwards agreed those were good points.
“They’re little things, but they would mean a lot,” Welch said. “To say we have this relationship with the city and the city has this relationship with us. If we built that, then we continue to build a relationship with the tenants as well and the tenants know we’re all working on the same page then I think we’ll build a system where we’re not going to have these people living on top of each other in rooms.”
Member Jeff Leeman noted that after concerns during the last meeting about the high cost of hiring an inspector, city staff is now looking into doing rental inspections in-house. Since that portion of the draft ordinance is still being worked on, the committee temporarily skipped over those portions of the draft and will revisit them at a later date.
All committee members were present.
The next meeting will be at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 1. The topic will be continued discussion of the draft ordinance.
