RENTALS SUBJECT OF CITY SCRUTINY.Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer PALMDALE - Palmdale apartments and rental homes could be subject to regular city inspections for health and building-code violations, financed by a proposed new fee on all landlords. Rental units would be assessed a registration fee of $9.60 to $48 a year and would be inspected as often as once a year, with rental units found to be in good shape re-inspected every three or five years, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a new city proposal. ``We're looking to preserve the housing stock in our city,'' Mayor Jim Ledford said last week. ``I think it takes our code enforcement Code Enforcement is the act of enforcing a set of s, principles, or laws (especially written ones) and insuring observance of a system of norms or customs. An authority usually enforces a civil code, a set of rules, or a body of laws and compel those subject to their authority to to another level.'' Unveiled Friday, the proposed rental inspection program and fees are to be discussed at tonight's City Council meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 38300 Sierra Highway Sierra Highway is a road in Southern California, United States. It runs from Tunnel Station near the north limit of the City of Los Angeles, where it intersects with San Fernando Road and Foothill Boulevard, as well as Interstate 5, and continues north to Mojave, mostly paralleling . About 11,900 apartment units and rental homes are believed to be in Palmdale, with rented houses accounting for about 5,200 of those, city officials said. That means about 30 percent of the city's households live in rentals. Greater Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley Association of Realtors President Ed Luman said he intends to meet with city officials to discuss the proposed inspections and fees. ``GAVAR is basically in support of keeping up property values,'' said Luman, who is with RE/MAX RE/MAX Real Estate Maximums (Canada) All-Pro in Lancaster. A number of cities in California There are 478 incorporated cities in California, 22 of which are styled "Town of (Name)" instead of "City of (Name)." They are arranged in alphabetical order, with the "towns" marked '*'. Under California law (see, e.g. and around the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. in recent years have begun inspecting rental units regularly. Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. began the practice in 1998 to supplement inspections triggered by tenants' complaints. The California Supreme Court in 2001 voted 5-2 to uphold Los Angeles' program and its inspection fee, which had been challenged by apartment owners who said it was a tax that needed approval from voters. Palmdale's inspection proposal is described by city officials as an outgrowth of the 13-year-old Partners Against Crime program, which teams city inspectors with sheriff's deputies and other officials to combat crime and unsafe housing conditions housing conditions npl → condiciones fpl de habitabilidad housing conditions npl → conditions fpl de logement , particularly in downtown apartments. City officials said they believe it is time to augment the PAC efforts and go beyond the city's present practice of inspecting rental units only when a tenant complains. The regular inspection program and the fees will reduce the instances when the city attorney must seek an inspection warrant from a judge, help shelter tenants from retaliation RETALIATION. The act by which a nation or individual treats another in the same manner that the latter has treated them. For example, if a nation should lay a very heavy tariff on American goods, the United States would be justified in return in laying heavy duties on the manufactures and from landlords angry about complaints, and provide money to pay for it all. Two city building and safety inspectors spend hundreds of hours annually inspecting and ordering corrections to substandard conditions they find after complaints from renters, city officials said. City officials said they have seen instances when landlords threaten tenants with rent hikes, eviction The removal of a tenant from possession of premises in which he or she resides or has a property interest done by a landlord either by reentry upon the premises or through a court action. and even violence for calling the city. They also said apartment owners frequently will fix problems when the city orders them to, but let conditions slip once they feel the city pressure is off them. Inspecting 12,000 rental units will require hiring at least two more inspectors and a permit technician, and will take more than three years to get to them all. After the first inspection, the apartments or homes where no violations are found would be inspected in five years. So will units where the landlord corrects the problems within 30 days and enters the PAC certification program, which includes training classes for managers or landlords. Rental units with one major violation that is corrected within 30 days would be reinspected in three years. Any building with more than one major violation or any violation that takes the landlord more than 30 days to correct would be reinspected in a year. Landlords would be charged a $48 registration fee at each inspection, so some would be paying $48 every year and others $48 every three or five years. The proposed ordinance would require all landlords to register their units within six months. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion