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Deadline nears for Youngstown landlords to register with city
By DAVID SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
Landlords who haven’t registered their rental properties with the city are running out of time to do so without a penalty.
If landlords don’t register by Oct. 6, they’ll be fined $100 a week by the city — assuming city officials know who they are.
The city had originally given landlords until Aug. 15 to register.
Because it’s a new program — the first inspections began Sept. 7 — the city has given landlords who haven’t registered additional time, said Maureen O’Neil, the city’s rental property registration administrator. That time is about up, she said.
To date, about 1,500 rental units have been registered with the city, O’Neil said.
Though the city doesn’t know for sure how many rental units there are, officials have used about 4,000 as an estimate.
The city knows of several landlords who haven’t registered and will rely on city residents to help them find others, O’Neil said.
Residents who suspect unregistered rental properties are asked to contact the city’s rental-property registration office with a list. Residents can e-mail the office at rpr@cityofyoungstownoh.us or mail a list to its office at 9 W. Front St., Suite 315, Youngstown 44503.
“The people we would most like to encourage to [contact] us are tenants,” O’Neil said. “We will not notify your landlord that you have contacted us.”
The program requires rental-property owners to pay the city $20 per unit for an annual license after a safety inspection. If a property is a multifamily dwelling, the first unit is $20, and each additional unit in the structure is $15.
The city’s inspection list of 21 items requires rental properties to have, among other things, working electric and heating systems, operating gutters and downspouts, structurally sound porches and stairs, and windows that aren’t broken or cracked.
The inspections are basic, but are needed to protect tenants’ safety, O’Neil said.
Some landlords oppose the program saying they already are required to be inspected two times a year: once by their lender and once by their insurance company. In cases such as that, the city’s inspection program isn’t needed, they say.
Some landlords also say the program isn’t fair because it doesn’t include vacant units, those that are owner occupied and federally subsidized properties.
The latter are exempt because a government agency is already inspecting those units, and the city is looking at a plan to inspect vacant units, city officials say.
Youngstown State University on-campus student housing units are exempt because they’re inspected by a governmental agency, O’Neil said. But off-campus housing is subject to inspections, O’Neil said.
The city is pleased to be working with landlords who are cooperating with the inspection and registration requirements, Mayor Jay Williams said.
“However, for those landlords who choose to violate the law; well then consequences await,” he said. “The bottom line is that at a minimum, every resident in Youngstown deserves decent, safe, and sanitary housing. Any landlord who disagrees with that philosophy should not be doing business in our city.”