Everett may inspect rentals

Published 2:54 pm Tuesday, June 2, 2009

EVERETT — Apartments and rental homes in the city would see regular inspections under an anti-slum plan being considered by the Everett City Council.

A proposed ordinance, the first of its kind in Snohomish County, is an effort to clean up the city’s small percentage of substandard rental housing.

“We’re not looking for the iron fist of government,” said David Hall, a deputy city attorney with the city of Everett. “We’re looking for assurance that properties meet the minimum standards.”

Among other things, city building inspectors would check rental homes for working smoke detectors, plumbing and safe electrical wiring. Inspections would take place every two years.

If a rental fails inspection, landlords would have to fix any defects within 30 days, then have their property reinspected.

Inspections by city building officials would be done without cost to landlords.

The money to pay for the program — up to $100,000 a year — would come from the city’s general fund. The city anticipates it will have to hire an additional housing inspector. Property owners would have the option of hiring private inspectors at their own expense.

City Council members are scheduled to vote on the proposal at the council’s June 10 meeting.

No organized opposition has surfaced so far, although some property managers say they worry that a citywide inspection program is overkill.

“I acknowledge and recognize there’s a need to improve what appears to be substandard housing in the area, but it sounds like they’re casting a pretty wide net to catch a few folks who aren’t complying,” said Shawn Hoban, president of Everett-based Coast Real Estate Services, which manages several residential properties in Everett.

More than half of Everett’s 40,000 occupied residential units, about 21,000, are renter-occupied, according to the 2000 census, the most recent data available. Only a small fraction are believed to be poorly maintained and substandard.

The ordinance was written with the assumption that most rental units meet current city building and fire codes, Hall said.

Accordingly, it allows city officials to enroll properties in a self-certification program that authorizes landlords to police their own properties for compliance with the city’s codes. Landlords wouldn’t have to file the inspection reports with the city, however they would have to keep paperwork for 10 years and could face stiff fines if found falsifying records. The records would be randomly audited.

The ordinance also exempts new buildings and rentals that are already required to follow other mandatory government inspection programs, such as those with Section 8 tenants. Section 8 is a federal housing assistance program.

Some critics say the city already has a code compliance division.

Supporters counter the argument, saying the city’s current complaint-driven system of code enforcement is too weak to ensure that landlords meet city codes.

That’s because tenants who live in substandard housing fear reprisals from landlords if they report problems.

Everett’s proposed inspection program is modeled in part on one in Pasco.

That program was started in 1988 after many of that city’s older homes became rundown and some landlords were illegally converting basements and storage sheds, some without plumbing and heat, into housing for farm workers, said Gary Crutchfield, Pasco’s city manager.

After nearly a decade of legal challenges, the Washington state Supreme Court in 2007 ruled that Pasco’s housing inspection program, which allows landlords to hire private inspectors, did not violate state or federal protections from unreasonable searches or invasion of privacy. Previous Supreme Court rulings had blocked housing inspection programs that used city inspectors to enter private property.

In the program’s first year, Crutchfield said about 15 percent of the units failed inspections. Most were promptly repaired to meet basic city requirements. A few dozen houses and outbuildings were demolished, because of the cost associated with making them habitable, Crutchfield said.

“Most of the units, within two years were fixed up,” Crutchfield said.

The issue of substandard housing in Everett is one of the city’s more “egregious” problems, Everett City Councilwoman Brenda Stonecipher said.

Landlords who rent out unsafe housing endanger low-income tenants, drive down surrounding property values and pose unfair competition to responsible property owners, Stonecipher said.

“All it takes is a couple bad apples in any neighborhood and property values are in jeopardy, and the quality of life is diminished,” Stonecipher said.

Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429, dchircop@heraldnet.com.