Archive for category DNS

City of Milwaukee’s “Residential Rental Certificate Program” Is Unveiled

Oct 21

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in City of Milwaukee, DNS, Legislation, Residential Rental Inspection (RRI) Program / Mandatory Rental Inspections / Landlord Licensing | 14 Comments

Well I have finally been able to get my hands on a preliminary copy of the city of Milwaukee’s proposed mandatory rental inspection ordinance.  The ordinance is sponsored by Alderman Kovac, Wade, Davis and Hines.  The ordinance refers to the proposed program as a “Residential Rental Certificate” program.  The program is really just a variation on “landlord licensing” and mandatorty rental inspection programs.  I would encourage you to read the enitre proposed ordinance, but I have also set forth the key points below:

-     This will be a 5 year pilot program.

-     The targeted area includes the UWM area on the city’s east side and the Lindsay Heights neighborhood on the city’s north side.  These areas were selected because the city believes the areas need to be monitored to prevent deterioration.  Allegedly these two areas include older housing stock, have a high density of rental properties, have a higher percentage of complaints, and have high tenant turnover.  The city feels that frequent inspections of the rental properties in these two areas are needed to maintain safe, decent, and sanitary living conditions.

-     Every rental unit in the selected areas must apply for and receive a rental certificate before the owner is allowed to rent out the unit.

-     The ordinance includes duplexes and larger multi-unit rental properties.  Owner-occupied duplexes are excluded.

-     The owner must also complete, sign and submit an application to the city that will include the owner’s legal name, the address of the rental property, the owner’s phone number, and the owner’s date of birth. 

-     A fee of $85  must accompany each rental unit application.

-     Prior to the city issuing a rental certificate the unit will be subject to an internal and external inspection by the Department of Neighborhood Services (D.N.S.).

-     DNS will conduct the inspection within 60 days of receipt of the application.

-     The owner must notify the tenant at least 2 days in advance of the inspection.

-     A fee of $50 will be imposed if DNS is unable to gain access to the unit for inspection.

-     If during the inspection DNS finds a “disqualifying violation” (defined as a condition that affects safe, decent and sanitary living conditions or other conditions that violate the city building code, building maintenance code or zoning code) the unit will be issued a 1 year certificate.

-      Any violation identified during the inspection must be abated within a reasonable amount of time (to be determiend by DNS).

-     If conditions are found that are determined to constitute an imminent danger to health and safety, DNS shall order the condition to be remedied and may limit or prohibit occupancy where approporiate.

-     DNS shall reinspect the unit as necessary to determine if any “disqualifying violations” have been remedied.  A reinspection fee may be charged.

-     If no disqualifying violations are found the unit will be given a 4 year certificate.

-     A temporary certificate can be given for up to 30 days if the disqualifying violations do not constitute a hazard to the occupants of the rental and if a plan to correct the violations is submitted and approved by DNS.

 -     After the certificate expires the owner will be required to renew the certificate and submit to another inspection and pay another $85 fee per unit.

-     If after the issuance of a 4 year certificate, DNS determines learns that there is a building or zoning code violation, the 4 year certificate can be revoked and the city can choose to replace the 4 year certificate with a 1 year certificate.

-     If at any time after the issuance of a 4 year certificate or a 1 year certificate, DNS  determines that there are building or zoning code violations that are critical and constitute an unsafe or unfit condition, the city can revoke the certificate.

-     Any violation identified after a certificate has been issued must be abated within a reasonable amount of time (to be determiend by DNS).

-     Any person who purchases a rental unit in the targeted areas must apply for a rental certificate and pay the accompanying fee within 30 days of the purchase.

-     Any person that sells a rental unit in the targeted areas must notify the purchasor of the property that a residential rental certificate is required by the city.

-     An owner that fails to apply for a residential rental certificate will be fined $100 for the first infraction.  If the owner fails to respond to a subsequent notices by the city the fine will increase to $150.

-     Residential rental inspection fees will be charged against the owner’s real estate and will be considered a “special charge.”

If you would like to contact your alderman you can find contact information here.

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UPDATE ON MILWAUKEE’S PROPOSED MANDATORY RENTAL UNIT INSPECTION PROGRAM

Sep 23

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in City of Milwaukee, DNS, Legislation, Residential Rental Inspection (RRI) Program / Mandatory Rental Inspections / Landlord Licensing | 1 Comment

A friend of mine was at a meeting this morning with the City of Milwaukee’s Budget Director and learned some more information on the City’s proposed mandatory rental unit inspection program.

First, the proposed ordinance is in the final stages of drafting and will be released in the near future.

Second, it will be a 5 year pilot program in the UWM area only.

Third, there will be a fee of $40 per landlord and a $35 per unit inspection fee.

Fourth, the pilot program must be approved by the city’s common council each and every year in order for it to continue.

Fifth, if a rental unit passes its 1st inspection then the unit will receive a 4 year compliance certificate and will not need to be reinspected until the 4 years expires.

NOTE:  MUCH OF THIS INFORMATION IN THIS POST IS NO LONGER ACCURATE – TO FIND OUT WHAT THE ACTUAL ORDINANCE STATES GO TO MY NEW POST ON THE SUBJECT.

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“Landlords Feel The Loathing” – Accurate Article On Landlords’ Plight Published in Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Today

Sep 17

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in CCAP, DNS, Investing In Rental Property, Legislation, Rep. Marlin Schneider, Residential Rental Inspection (RRI) Program / Mandatory Rental Inspections / Landlord Licensing, Screening Tenants | 2 Comments

Several weeks ago I received a telephone call from Journal Sentinel reporter Patrick McIlheran.  Mr. McIlheran told me that someone had referred him to my blog and after reading some of the posts that he wanted to speak with me as he was in the process of putting together a piece about how the state and the city seem to make the business of landlording more and more difficult.  I was more than happy to assist Mr. McIlheran as this topic comes up regularly during my interactions with clients, and at the the Apartment Association of Southeastern Wisconsin meeting.  Truth be told, most business – not just rental property owners – wonder why the city makes doing business here so difficult and unappealing.

After speaking with Mr. McIlheran, I referred him to a colleague of mine, Tim Ballering, owner of Affordable Rental Associates, LLC and past president of the AASEW.  Tim owns and manages hundreds of units in Milwaukee and has been a landlord almost as long as I have been alive (just kidding Tim ; ).  It goes without saying that Tim could give Mr. McIlheran some necessary background and perspective that I could not.

Mr. McIlheran’s piece entitled “Landlords Feel The Loating” was published in today’s paper.  You can also read it online at JSOnline.

It is a very good article. Please be sure to take the time to read the article and to email or call Mr. McIlheran and thank him for taking the time to present an accurate story on landlord’s present plight.  In light of the soon to be proposed Milwaukee ordinance that will require landlords to submit to mandatory inspections of the interior of their rental units, Ms. McIlheran’s article could not be more timely.

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Why Milwaukee’s Mandatory Rental Inspection Program (a.k.a. “Landlord Licensing”) Is Not Needed and Is A Bad Idea.

Sep 14

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in City of Milwaukee, DNS, Residential Rental Inspection (RRI) Program / Mandatory Rental Inspections / Landlord Licensing | 4 Comments

Here are a few of the reasons why the City of Milwaukee’s soon-to-be proposed ordinance requiring mandatory rental inspections  (a.k.a. “Landlord Licensing”) should not be passed.

For more background information on this proposed new ordinance please read my earlier post entitled ” Milwaukee To Propose Landlord Licensing and Mandatory Interior Inspections of Rental Property.”  

There Are Better Ways To Spend Milwaukee’s Limited Money – The city of Milwaukee has no money and as such the city is threatening to close libraries, not hire additional police officers, not pay overtime to police officers, cut back on the number of firemen assigned to each ladder company.  Under this new ordinance the city will spend money which would be better spent on more police officers and other safety issues rather than hiring more building inspectors. Read the rest of this entry »

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Milwaukee to Propose Landlord Licensing and Mandatory Interior Inspections of Rental Property

Sep 10

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in AASEW, DNS, Residential Rental Inspection (RRI) Program / Mandatory Rental Inspections / Landlord Licensing | 20 Comments

The city of Milwaukee is planning on introducing a new ordinance that will require rental property owners in certain parts of the city to license their rental properties and submit to mandatory interior inspections by the Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS).

Many of the AASEW board members have been having regular monthly meetings with the new DNS Commissioner Art Dahlberg.  During a recent meeting Mr. Dahlberg informed us that in the near future he will be pushing for some form of residential rental inspection program (a.k.a “Landlord Licensing”) for portions of the city.  During a meeting with Alderman Bob Donovan it was confirmed that this program was in the works and that the city’s forthcoming budget already has money earmarked for the program.

Under this program DNS would target certain areas of the city which they consider to be “blighted” or which will soon become “blighted” if something is not done.  Other factors that would be considered in determining what areas to target would be the age of the housing stock, the percentage of rental units to owner occupied properties, and the history of complaints in the neighborhood.  Mr. Dahlberg indicated that the area of the city that would most likely be addressed first would be the east side near UWM due to the large number of illegally converted dwelling units and poorly maintained properties.

The goal of the program would allegedly be for the owners and the city building inspectors to work together to better the rental housing stock with the building inspectors becoming a resource for rental property owners.

While the specific details were not provided to me, any proposed program will most certainly contain provisions such as the following:

-  A requirement that all rental property owners in the targeted area pay a fee to the city for each unit that they own. 

-  A requirement that rental property owners allow the city building inspectors to conduct mandatory inspections of the interiors of each of their rental properties that are located within the targeted area.

-  If no code violations are found then the rental property would receive a certificate of code compliance which would allow the owner to rent out the unit for a period of time until the next mandatory interior inspection would be required.

-  If code violations were to be found in the rental property then the owner would be denied a certificate of code compliance (thus preventing the unit from being rented) until the violations were corrected.  Depending on the the number and severity of the violations, the rental property owner would be required to submit to an increased number of interior inspections during the ensuing months until the city would determine that the rental property was safe.

While this new program would only focus on the UWM area initially, other areas of town were also mentioned (the north side of Milwaukee for instance) as being targeted eventually.  It is fairly obvious that the end goal would be to have all rental properties within the city under this program.

I personally am not in favor of this program and I can’t imagine that many landlords would be.  If passed this new ordinance will be yet another regulation on rental property owners - a group that is already overly regulated.  I can’t imagine that tenants are going to enjoy this invasion of their privacy either.  Not to mention that the additional costs to landlords will most likely be passed on to the tenant by increased rents.  I also personally have difficulty with the fact that the city regularly threatens to cut the number of police, refuse overtime for police, eliminate the number of firemen at ladder companies, and close libraries, but yet they are willing to provide additional money for the hiring of more building inspectors.

While the alleged goal of this residential rental recording program is to improve the quality of the housing stock in the city I can’t help but think that it will also be a source of revenue for a city that allegedly is broke.

This proposed ordinance will be addressed in more detail in my future posts.

To read why this program is not a good idea click here.

To read the text of a study conducted by the LaFollette Institute in 2002 on whether or not Landlord Licensing should be implemented in Milwaukee click here.  To read a summary of the the study concluding that Landlord Licensing would casue more harm then good if implemented in Milwaukee click here.

For more information go to www.rentalinspectionprogram.com

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DNS COMMISSIONER TO SPEAK AT JUNE AASEW MEETING

May 15

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in AASEW, DNS | No Comments

I hope that AASEW members and non-members will all come out in force to attend the AASEW’s June membership meeting on June 15, 2009.  Our main speaker will be the Department of Neighborhood Services new Commissioner Mr. Art Dahlberg. We are not yet certain what Mr. Dahlberg’s speaking topic will be at this time but check back to this Blog for updates. Mr. Dahlberg has been more than willing to meet with the AASEW, its Board of Directors, and landlords in general to assist in fostering a good working relationship between the City and rental property owners.

The AASEW’s meeting are always held on the 3rd Monday of each month – and held at the Best Western Midway Hotel located at 1005 S. Moorland Rd. in Brookfield.

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