Rental Inspections on the Horizon—By Camas Frank

About 100 people, including landlords, Cal Poly student representatives and the usual crowd of political critics, turned out Dec. 16 before the SLO City Council to protest a proposed new rental inspection ordinance, still in the draft stages.
Worked on over the past year as one of the City’s major wellness goals, the inspection program is an effort to ensure safe living conditions for renters in single family residences, which are often converted with illegal garage apartments and loft bedrooms.
The previous round of debate on the subject came in 2013 after 40 college students were found to be living next to exposed water heaters and furnaces, and around sub-par wiring at the Pine Creek condominium complex, prompting their eviction and a mad dash for housing in the middle of the school term.
While that situation was dealt with under the City’s current fire safety inspection program for multi-unit dwellings, proponents have wanted something similar for the conversions that have sprung up in residential neighborhoods surrounding Cal Poly, as demographics have shifted to over 60-percent renters compared to homeowners.
Realtors and property managers representing investment property owners were concerned about the imposed cost of the program. Sandra Rowley from Residents for Quality Neighborhoods, and others praised the adoption of the ordinance as a solution to their long-term issues with overcrowded homes in residential neighborhoods.
Additionally, the City’s Community Development Department staff noted that vulnerable tenants are usually afraid to lodge a formal complaint for fear of losing the only housing they have available.
In Council debate over whether to go forward with the staff’s recommended plan, Mayor Jan Marx and Councilmembers John Ashbaugh and Carlyn Christianson were of the mind that the playing field would be evened out for “good” landlords.
The likely draft ordinance would result in a $98 annual fee to pay for three new inspectors to work through the rental housing stock in 3-year rotations.
Some of the “mom and pop” landlords in attendance said they were already operating on slim margins and that cost would certainly be passed on to their tenants.
Others with larger operations complained that they already pay for City fire inspection at their apartment complexes but have never met or seen an inspector in all the years they’ve paid.
Opponents spoke against an infringement of their Constitutional Rights against unwarranted search and seizure. That was an argument that didn’t hold much water for Marx, who finally asked one speaker to focus his remarks on the City ordinance rather than continue with a diatribe on whether or not the government had a right to inspect him with a microscope.
Indeed, most renters already have leases that permit safety inspections with advanced notice.
Several people who would be subject to the program spoke from experience attesting to the need to regulate absentee owners.
“I’ve been both the solution and the problem,” said Eric Meyer, a county planning commissioner, noting that as a student he lived in one of the homes neighbors complain about. However, “I’ve bought and restored 13 homes in San Luis Obispo,” he said. “I’ve taken out a lot of illegal conversions in conditions you wouldn’t believe.”
He went on to detail spliced sewage lines, fire hazard extension cord wiring and general disrepair that’s hidden from public view, causing a drain on the real estate economy whenever a home is set to change hands.
A split council voted 3-2 to authorize staff to draft the new ordinance. Of issue will be precise definition of rental violations and the exact scope of the inspections proposed. The item will likely be back in March 2015.