Tweaks in requirements to help both tenants, landlords
(EDITOR’S NOTE: When first published, this release had the incorrect amount for the fine for a first-time offense.)
COVINGTON, Ky. - With several thousand rental units within its borders, the City of Covington is tweaking its Rental License Dwelling Ordinance to make it easier for landlords to navigate and more likely to achieve its goal: Maintaining safe and decent housing for those who need it.
On Tuesday night, the Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 to - in the lexicon of official legalese - “repeal and reenact Chapter 155 of the Covington Code of Ordinances.”
What that action accomplishes, however, is much easier to understand, Covington Neighborhood Services Director Ken Smith said.
“We’re trying to maintain a decent quality of life for renters in Covington while providing a meaningful service to those who rent out the property,” Smith said.
The “new” Chapter 155 does several things:
- It moves from a one-year license to a three-year license, lessening the frequency with which landlords have to apply.
- It requires only one license per parcel, no matter how many units are rented at that location.
- It changes the penalty from operating without a license from a criminal offense to a civil offense, with the fine for a first-time offense set at $250 (instead of potential jail time).
- It creates a small license fee to help pay a portion of the costs of inspections, starting at $30 (every three years) for a parcel that has a single rental unit and rising to $150 for 100-plus units.
- And it requires an inspection when a license is granted, rather than reserving inspections for when complaints are made.
The initial fee is due when current licenses expire April 15, 2021. But Smith said the City, initially, will issue “provisional licenses” next April and stagger the required initial inspections over three years.
“We don’t have the staff to do every single inspection next April, so in essence we’re gradually phasing in the required initial inspection by doing about a third of them each of the first three years,” he said.
The inspections, which are completed by the City’s Code Enforcement division, primarily look for unsafe or unsanitary conditions, he said.
The division has adopted a “compliance” philosophy rather than a “punitive” one, meaning the City’s approach is to make landlords aware of code violations and give them the opportunity to fix any problems, rather than resorting to fines and court action right away.
“We just want safe housing,” he said.
Thus, one of the goals of the licensing system is to create reliable communications channels by ensuring that the City has accurate contact information for property owners.
Likewise, the change from criminal to civil penalties will improve compliance with the overall requirements, Smith said.
“We think the new system will increase accountability and collaboration all around, to the benefit of tenants, landlords, and the surrounding neighborhood,” he said.
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