ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 17, 1996 TAG: 9602190028
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
Roanoke housing administrators have come up with a draft rental inspection plan that would require regular inspections of thousands of rental homes and apartments in older neighborhoods near downtown.
While the program has yet to be enacted by City Council, an advocate for tenants praised it Friday as strong and effective in preventing exploitation of poor people.
Some Roanoke landlords, however, are up in arms about the program. They say they've been shut out of deliberations over it. One says the guidelines would do little to protect tenants' health and safety.
The draft guidelines will be reviewed at a public workshop at the Roanoke Civic Center Exhibition Hall March 7 at 7 p.m.
The draft guidelines call for the city to inspect rental housing for building code violations whenever a unit becomes vacant, but no more than once a year.
Initial inspections would be free, but reinspections would cost landlords $35 each.
The city intends to implement the program in 11 of the oldest neighborhoods in Roanoke, those closest to downtown. Dwellings in three of the four city quadrants - Southeast, Northwest and Southwest - would be affected.
In general, the draft guidelines divide building code violations into three categories:
* Landlords would have to correct serious problems that affect the health and safety of tenants - such as lack of heat - before they could rent a unit.
* Landlords would be allowed to rent homes or apartments with "significant" violations, but would have to make repairs within 21 days.
* Inspectors also would look for minor deficiencies, although those would not bar an owner from getting a certificate of compliance.
The city intends to start a pilot inspection program in one neighborhood, not yet selected, perhaps as early as June.
"The goal is to find out what the needs are in the pilot program, and then begin quickly implementing inspections in all 11 districts," said city spokeswoman Michelle Bono. The cost of the program hasn't been fully calculated but is expected to be included in the fiscal 1997 budget, which goes into effect July 1.
The program was authorized under legislation that took effect July 1, 1994. Since then, a handful of cities across the state, including Lynchburg and Norfolk, have adopted rental inspection programs.
Bono said the city has been working with housing officials, tenants and landlords on developing an inspection program for more than a year.
The program has drawn greater attention since the Jan. 20 fire deaths of a grandmother and four children in a rental home. No smoke detectors were found in the rubble.
The draft guidelines were praised Friday by Ted Edlich, executive director of Total Action Against Poverty, a local community action agency.
"I think the city is to be complimented on at least a very strong draft certificate of compliance program," Edlich said. "The neighborhoods of the city will benefit. Certainly it will curtail the exploitation of poor people who are renters of substandard property. How well it works depends on the level of effort put into inspections."
But John Kepley, president of the Roanoke Property Investors Association - a group of more than 80 landlords - called the guidelines "a crock." Kepley said the association's concerns weren't heeded in the formulation of the program.
"We were promised ... that we would be invited to participate in the drafting of this proposal, but we were not," Kepley said. "You are going to find out that there are a lot of upset landlords who will make their voices known over the next two months."
Roland "Spanky" Macher, a landlord whom the city has frequently hauled into court over building code violations, said the program will allow the city and tenants to harass landlords.
"Now what tenants are going to do is call the building inspections department and not pay their rent because they have a leaky faucet," Macher said. "This rental inspection program is going to destroy a lot of people who are looking at rentals for secondary incomes and investments."
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