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Rental controls are tough call
(by Dave Lange - May 27, 2010)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Rental controls are tough call
The City of Solon, like many municipalities, has an ordinance that prohibits multifamily occupancy in single-family residences, but it appears to be virtually unenforceable.
Thus, discussion of a proposed permitting process for rental units in the city has evolved beyond the intent of enforcing maintenance standards to include greater oversight of occupants. But city officials could find themselves caught between the rock of the U.S. Constitution, whose Bill of Rights restricts such government searches, and the hard place of absentee landlords and ruinous tenants who undermine good neighborhoods.
Members of the Solon planning commission appeared to be shocked during a recent public hearing on rental regulation when a homeowner in one of the city's finer subdivisions told them tales of transient tribulation. She described past activities in one rental home that were consistent with operating a methamphetamine lab, including late-night deliveries of empty plastic jugs and shipments of full plastic jugs. More recently, she and her husband have logged over 30 license plates of vehicles parked at the house, including those from as far away as New Mexico, Florida and Minnesota.
She related the deterioration of rental properties, including uncut grass, overgrown landscaping and broken windows.
According to police, there have been no complaints regarding the house since it was the subject of a mortgage-fraud prosecution several years ago.
The city's planning director, who brought the proposed rental-occupancy-permit ordinance to the commission in April, said proving cohabitation by unrelated individuals in single-family residences would be difficult in a court of law.
Legitimate surveillance by police in response to reports of suspected illegal activity, such as meth production, can and should lead to proper search warrants and criminal prosecution. Such highly profitable operations, though, are not limited to renters.
But the burden of proof on whether a hotel or rooming house is being operated in a single-family home is a different story. Some renters, as well as homeowners, do have friends visiting from New Mexico.
Although such problems as those related to the Solon planning commission may be surprising in outlying communities, they are nothing new to the inner cities and inner-ring suburbs.
And while the suburb of Solon may believe that they can be resolved by periodic government inspections inside apartment units and rental homes, the City of Canton faces a lawsuit over doing just that. An attorney representing landlords there has notified the city's law department that its certification of rental properties, which is subject to renewal every three to five years, is in conflict with the U.S. Constitution and the state building code. The landlords group also raised the issue of equal treatment under the law because of the regulatory focus on rental properties while not holding owner-occupied properties to the same standard.
Not only do such inspection requirements target renters, as opposed to homeowners, some of whom are not assets to their neighborhoods, but they impact owners of apartment buildings, as opposed to absentee owners of single-family houses, who are more difficult to track down.
There are options. The Canton landlords recommend complaint-driven inspections through which tenants could call attention to interior maintenance deficiencies. Exterior-maintenance requirements should be enforced equitably. Residents should draw police attention to criminal activities.
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