Springdale : Landlord registry proposed for city
Posted on Monday, March 12, 2007
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/184308/
SPRINGDALE — Larry Gibson says he works hard to provide a dry, safe and clean place to live for tenants in his 44 rental units.
When things break, he fixes them. If the rent isn’t paid, the tenant is evicted. The market forces that guide the real estate industry are sufficient, Gibson said.
“What I’m asking is that you leave me alone,” Gibson said of city officials. “I don’t need Big Brother coming in and helping me.”
The Springdale City Council is working on an ordinance that would make landlords register their rental enterprises at City Hall. And down the road, some aldermen want to implement a fee and inspection program for all rental properties.
A draft ordinance calling for a registry of landlords and agents was pulled from the Feb. 27 City Council agenda. Alderman Jesse Core, chairman of the Health, Sanitation and Property Maintenance Committee, told aldermen that the ordinance needed more work.
The committee met Friday morning and agreed that the first step is to create a rental registration. Property owners who fail to list their business information within 90 days of notification would be fined up to $ 500, and up to $ 250 per day afterward. The committee’s recommendation is expected to appear as an ordinance on the City Council agenda next month.
Once the registry is complete, the council could look at ways to implement citywide property inspections. The mass inspection program could be conducted by private contractors and new code officers paid for by licensing fees, an idea broached by Core, fellow committee members and city staff.
“We need to come up with a way of funding this,” Core said. “At some point, I want to see a rental housing inspection process.”
Core’s vision for Springdale real estate found support from Mayor Jerre Van Hoose and fellow aldermen Kathy Jaycox, Ricky Evans and Jim Reed, who attended Friday’s committee meeting.
Gibson, anticipating a move toward property inspections, compared aldermen to the “camel sticking his nose under the tent.”
Though the sanitation committee appeared united, opposition and competing views will have to be considered as the council molds the measure for final consideration.
“I don’t think we need the ordinance,” Alderman Bobby Stout said. “What’s next: People registering [the names of tenants ]?”
Stout said land records are already available to the public. They can be viewed at the Washington County Courthouse or online at www. co. washington. ar. us. The property listings do not include phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
A Web visitor must have a member ID and password to see the listings.
Police Chief Kathy O’Kelley has volunteered to meet with landlords this month to discuss the proposed ordinance. She is prepared to defend the plan in the face of critics.
“I don’t think this is Big Brother,” O’Kelley said. “I don’t think we’re a bunch of Nazis getting all these people together.”
By city code, a new business cannot have a license without first being inspected by the Buildings Department and the Fire Department. Business plans also must be approved by the Department of Planning and Community Development.
Those requirements apply to restaurants, barber shops, dental offices and grocery stores but not to landlords and their properties.
That needs to change, Evans said.
“To me, it’s no different than a little old lady who wants to run a sewing business,” Evans said. “I think if you have a rental business, you should have a business license.”
Longtime Springdale landlord Charles Redding, who owns at least 55 properties, disagrees.
“Control,” Redding said during a March 2 interview. “I think they want to interject themselves into our business.”
County land records show that Redding owns 55 properties, but he declined to say how many rental units he controls.
Gibson and Redding said they aren’t afraid of code enforcement officers or the fire marshal.
“We’re customer-oriented, not slumlords,” said Redding.
However, for someone who owns many properties, a code inspection could easily yield a long and expensive list of repairs.
“I can see the incremental path this is following,” Redding said. “Enough is enough.”
Census records show that in 2005 Springdale had 20, 859 occupied housing units. Of that figure, 12, 155 were owner-occupied and 8, 704 were renter-occupied.
Fire Chief Duane Atha said he would like to see business licenses for landlords and the citywide fire inspections those licenses would entail.
“You can’t over-emphasize the benefits of inspections,” Atha said.
But with only two fire inspectors and one fire marshal, Atha said routine inspections on all rental property isn’t possible.
Chief Building Official Mike Chamlee has a different view.
“We don’t have the time to inspect every rent house in the city of Springdale,” Chamlee said. “That is not my intent or desire with this ordinance.” However, a simple registry for local and out-of-state landlords would benefit building and code officials, he said. “We can take care of small problems more quickly,” Chamlee said. “Registration with an agent or an owner would do all we need to do.” Both Little Rock and North Little Rock require business licenses for landlords and both keep a registry of local agents for absentee landlords.
Neither city requires inspections before the business licenses are issued.
“Manpowerwise, it’s nearly impossible,” North Little Rock’s code enforcement director Tom Wadley said.
Wadley and code enforcement supervisor Sheila Reynolds of Little Rock agree that having a list of local agents for absentee landlords is helpful.
Chamlee agreed, saying outof-town land owners are the prime target of the ordinance.
He recalls a situation last year at 306 Fink St. An elderly tenant lived in the house alone. By the time code enforcement officers and police opened a file on the derelict property and gained entry, the resident was near death and living in unsanitary conditions.
The resident was evacuated and the property was eventually cleaned up. The landlord was in Minnesota and had no local contact.
“There was no one here that you could get in touch with,” Chamlee said. “[Communications ] had to go from here to Minnesota and back.... Out-ofstate people are who we’re looking for.”
Landlords such as Gibson and Redding are familiar with the Fink Street trouble and said they were sympathetic toward the elderly man. But the physical and mental state of a tenant is not necessarily a landlord’s priority, they said.
Redding’s business focuses on buying, renovating and renting properties suffering from neglect. Redding said he and other landlords have made Springdale a better place to live, without city oversight.
“We have improved this city more than we have hurt it,” Redding said. “I have cleaned up entire blocks. Every property I touch, a few months later I get a note saying the taxes have gone up because I have improved the property.... I want to go quietly about my business.”