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RHRA_ Rental Licensing & Property Maintenance Public Hearing (01-17-06) - Page 4 of 6 <br /> <br />e. From interviews and complaints staff estimates that 10% of rental homes are <br />overcrowded. The high number of complaints about numerous vehicles adds credibility <br />to the common complaint that rental homes often contain more than 4 renters. <br /> <br />f. It is staff’s perception that single-family rental properties (absentee managed) are <br />disproportionately draining staff’s time, ar e requiring increasing amounts of staff time <br />each year, are much more difficult to resolve, can’t be properly addressed with existing <br />code language and are negatively impacting quiet residential neighborhoods <br /> <br />3.3 From all the study meetings and evaluation of the trends came a concept of “housing <br />preservation” and code changes that are intended to provide a rental licensing <br />regulation and application process for rental units including single family, duplexes, <br />triplexes and fourplexes through the adoption of a Rental Licensing Ordinance <br />(Attachment B – Draft Section 907 of the City Code ). This would provide the <br />authority to inspect the exterior & interio r of rental properties of 4 units or less to <br />ensure that they are in compliance with City Codes including the proposed Property <br />Maintenance Code. <br /> <br />4.0 Summary of Proposed Rental Licensing Ordinance – (Attachment B) <br />4.1 The draft rental license ordinance includes an annual inspection of all rental properties <br />containing 4 or fewer units. Based upon the comments from the public hearing on <br />November 28, staff suggests that those units that received a satisfactory first inspection <br />would not be inspected annually but every other year as long as the renter and ownership <br />status remain the same. In addition, the ordinance has been modified to eliminate those <br />duplexes, triplexes or fourplexes from the rental inspection program where the owner’s <br />primary residence is within one of the units. <br />4.2 Each rental owner must make an application for the rental license and comply with rental <br />license code. An inspection will occur to validate if the property is in compliance. If the <br />property is in compliance, a license will be issued . <br />4.3 If the property is not in compliance , a correction notice will be issued allowing the <br />owner a reasonable time to make the corrections prior to a re-inspection. <br />4.4 If compliance can not be achieved, a process for compliance would include the issuance <br />of a penalty (court citation or administrative penalty) and an additional notice to make the <br />corrections plus an alternative abatement process whereby the city orders the work to be <br />completed and charges the property with the cost of the correction added to the property <br />taxes. These compliance actions (court citation and abatement) would require City <br />Council approval . <br />4.5 The draft ordinance describes how the City Council designates the HRA as the <br />administrating entity of the program . It is proposed that the HRA fund the program <br />costs through the HRA levy. Any changes to the process would need to be adopted <br />by the City Council through an ordinance amendment . <br />4.6 In addition, the ordinance provides that the HRA serve as the Appeal Board to advise the <br />Council on issues where a property owner is appealing the ordinance and/or staff –owner