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Registration, inspections not required for landlords
By Marilyn Miller
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Monday, Jan 12, 2009
Barberton officials want to beef up the city's property codes to make landlords more accountable.
Mayor Bob Genet said the number of rentals in the city is high — with more than 30 percent of the housing stock listed as rental property.
''We have some attentive landlords who maintain their properties,'' said Genet, ''and we have some individuals, mostly nonlocals from the outskirts of the city as far away as California and West Virginia, who don't care about the condition of their properties as long as they get a check.''
The concern for housing upgrades is not just complaint-driven concerning unsightly homes, but also from an increase in foreclosures in neighborhoods and the need for additional housing.
''We need to get a grip on all the foreclosures. A lot of single-family homes have turned into rentals,'' said Councilman Paul Suboticki, who heads the building and planning committee. ''We want to be proactive.''
Officials said the measure is still in the planning stage, with many discussions and public meetings to be scheduled.
Barberton Building Commissioner Bill Baushlinger said the city has two property maintenance inspectors but no rental inspectors. He said a proposal on the books for 18 years has never been implemented because there was no money available to carry it out.
The program was based on registration fees, and currently there is no registration fee being paid by landlords. The original legislation had set a $20 registration fee.
Suboticki said that amount was the reason for the program's failure.
''That fee was so low it didn't provide enough funds to take care of all the paperwork or hire an inspector to regulate the maintenance codes,'' Suboticki said. ''This is new territory for us. We want to have a program that has some teeth in it and make it work.''
He said the goal for designing a specific program is not to pick on landlords, but to set up rules so that something is in place to address property maintenance such as gutters hanging off the roof, paint peeling on the house, windows taped over or a roof in poor shape.
''Nothing is being enforced for landlords. There are no registration fees or inspections,'' said Suboticki. ''If you're renting property in our city, it's a business and we have a responsibility to make sure you maintain a certain standard.''
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.
Barberton officials want to beef up the city's property codes to make landlords more accountable.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Tallmadge, OH
Posted 07:19 AM, 01/12/2009
Can this be good old fashioned "revenue raising fees" by the city of Barberton? The city could care less about the living conditions of renters. It's always wrong to pick on the landlords for revenue. All they do is then raise the rent to cover their costs and out go the renters and in come more empty homes. You know that city governments really suuck.
Akron, , OH
Posted 07:42 AM, 01/12/2009
Akron has a landlord tax. Implemented by the Health dept. Now they have done a beautiful job of supporting them self's..............
Posted 08:23 AM, 01/12/2009
The article again lacks by the Beacon. Barberton doesn't want to really inspect properties, they want to collect fees. Their plan consists of 3 actions. NO inspection, drive by inspections or actually doing inpections. They can't even maintain the city let alone inspect something. So far Bob Genet has set a dress code for the employees down at city hall and nothing else is really getting done. Barberton needs someone with vision and that's something that has been lacking since Randy hart took over. Every asset has been sold off to fund stupid projects. The problem with these rental properties started long ago when both Hart and Genet were running the city into the ground and doing nothing in council. The MAGIC city is now the TRAGIC city
Barberton, OH
Posted 08:52 AM, 01/12/2009
Im all for the program, maybe Barberton will start to look like a real city instead of one big trailer park. Over all it should be the landlords responsibility to keep the rental property in good condition.
Anti-Politically Correct & Anti-GOP, OH
Posted 08:54 AM, 01/12/2009
They also failed to mention that Genet owns a number of rentals in town as well.
How about just keeping up with your properties and making them look presentable so you are not subject to run-down properties in town? It is not that hard to keep up with things and also have tentants that are willing to work with you on that as well.
The fee is a bad idea anyhow in these tough economic times and people are barely able to get by as it is.
Bizarrebertucky, OH
Posted 09:14 AM, 01/12/2009
Mr. Genet seems to have a sick obcession for wanting to tear down as many houses in Barberton as he possibly can. I have a feeling that these properties that don't meet the inspection requirements will be quickly added to the "order to raze" list.
Some of these properties obviously need to be condemned,but many of them could be easily rehabilitated. It makes you wonder if there is more going on here than just simply trying to make Barberton look better. Like possibly a personal friend or relative in the demolition/new construction business...?
akron, oh
Posted 10:08 AM, 01/12/2009
Maybe they also need better tenants... I rented for 4 years and took better care of the house than the owner every did.
Barberton, OH
Posted 10:57 AM, 01/12/2009
Cry all you want to, this isn't as unfair as you all would like to pretend. I'll personally pay our additional $20 yearly to stay in the home we came to love. We respect our landlord, and want to stay where we are. Barberton needs to do something, and this idea is not a horrific one.
Posted 12:16 PM, 01/12/2009
Dilidali?
What's the point to charge the landlord when they may not do a thing to inspect? How about they charge the money then actually get out there and inspect those houses. It's usually not the property that's the problem but the dirt bags who rent's the house. Those are the same people you see all over Barberton with few teeth, tattoo's and loads of kids on welfare. Maybe they could set up a renters registration at the Cherry blossom festival.
Anti-Politically Correct & Anti-GOP, OH
Posted 12:29 PM, 01/12/2009
I'm sure what would eventually happen is that they will collect that yearly fee and do nothing. Just like the $5.00 per month we have been paying extra on our water bills every month that is supposed to be going towards storm water improvements and they have not done a thing with ever since they started collecting that a few years ago. We never got a chance to vote on that issue either.
