Some Youngstown tenants face surprise inspections

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

If you’re a rental property owner in Youngstown who’s failed to sign up for the city’s rental-registration program, don’t be surprised if an inspector knocks on your tenant’s door unannounced.

And don’t be surprised if you receive a $100-a-day invoice from the city in the mail for not participating in the new program, said Bill D’Avignon, Youngstown’s community development agency director.

The program requires rental property owners to pay the city $20 per unit for an annual license after a safety inspection, he said. If a property is a multifamily dwelling, the first unit is $20, and each additional unit in the structure is $15.

The inspections should start during the week of Aug. 30, D’Avignon said.

The city is paying $15 per inspection to the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority with the authority hiring two inspectors to do the work.

An inspection schedule will be finalized in a few days with the city contacting property owners ahead of time about the visits, D’Avignon said. The plan is to have the two inspectors, driven by a YMHA employee, go to specific parts of the city to do the work to be as efficient as possible with time, he said.

About 20 inspections are expected to be done each day, D’Avignon said. Each inspection — which is a safety check such as having working smoke detectors, handrails on staircases, no broken windows and locks on exterior doors — should take about 20 to 25 minutes, he said.

While in those areas, the inspectors will make unannounced visits to nearby rental properties owned by those who haven’t signed up and paid for the registration program, D’Avignon said.

“Those who didn’t comply will get a knock on the door and if it is a rental property, the tenants will be told their landlord will be charged a $100-a-day administrative penalty,” he said. “We’ll send [the landlords] an invoice for failing to comply.”

Registration hasn’t been strong for the new program.

The landlords of only about one-third of the 4,000 rental units in the city have filled out rental-registration forms and paid their fees, D’Avignon said. The city has collected about $48,000 from those landlords, he said.

The city expected to collect $130,000 to $140,000 if every landlord complied, D’Avignon said.

There are some larger rental property owners who filled out the forms, but refused to pay the fees.

The objection from some is they already pay for two inspections a year, one each from their lenders and their insurance companies, and there’s no reason to pay a third time.

Also, there should be an annual cap on the inspection cost, around $250, said Sherry DeMar, president of the 70-member Mahoning Valley Real Estate Investors Association.

“The only people who sign up are good landlords,” said DeMar, who registered but didn’t pay the inspection cost. “We have to devise a plan to go after the bad [landlords]. This program is such a waste of time.”

D’Avignon said he’s tired of hearing the same complaints. The program is designed to improve the quality of rental housing in the city, he said.