It’s always heartening to see a city realizing that aggressive, not passive, code enforcement is what is necessary to protect communities. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) announced a new initiative, the Proactive Housing Preservation Initiative. The ANHD Inc. website reports:
This agency shift from its old passive method of enforcement to more aggressive monitoring of building code compliance means that housing maintenance code violations, like leaky roofs, excessive vermin, etc., should be spotted much sooner. Furthermore, outstanding violations, which often remain unfixed for extended periods of time, should be remedied much more quickly with a more aggressive HPD monitoring the landlord’s efforts to clear the violations.
The problem is that too often these initiatives come into being because the problem has gotten so bad, and the buildings so dilapidated that it’s terribly difficult to get the property rehabilitated.
Large cities need to be strategic in how they use limited resources to target distressed properties. The IndyStar reports that Indianapolis has decided to concentrate its efforts by filing lawsuits against landlords who own multiple properties with high crime rates. The Fire Department said there were 90 arson fires in vacant buildings last year many set by homeless people seeking to keep warm. The local prosecutor handling the cases said that:
….. the city cross-referenced building code violations with high crime rates to prioritize which buildings and landlords to sue. Officials said rundown and unkempt buildings encourage crime.
This is a smart strategy and is most likely to lead to a decrease in crime. It’s one of the points I discuss at length when I teach my course on How Code Enforcement Effects Police Operations.
College towns and code violations go together like students and text books. Students seek cheap housing and are willing to live in terrible conditions if the price is right. Some landlords take advantage of this by not maintaining their buildings and others are fearful of the damage student tenants cause and are reluctant to spend money on upkeep because of that. Inspectors are usually pretty busy in areas where there are colleges and universities. A tragedy was averted when a fraternity house was shut down by the Troy Fire Department in New York after deadly levels of carbon monoxide were found. The fire department and the fraternity house are working to fix the problems before the students return. It’s imperative that college towns have an effective rental inspection program to make sure the housing meets minimum safety standards. A faithful reader points out additional fires in student rental housing in Bellingham on his website at http://www.zonemaven.blogspot.com/ I wish him luck on his attempt to get the local government to adopt such a program. Landlords will always object to the implementation of such an ordinance but the price in lives is too high not to have one.
Here’s an interesting television report regarding a landlord fined $129,000 for building code violations at a Fairfield, Ohio apartment building. http://www.wlwt.com/video/26069375/detail.html The news segment shows the deplorable conditions in the building. Such a huge fine always catches my attention. What I wonder if how often local governments actually collect the fines owed and whether the fines lead to compliance. I’d love to hear from some inspectors about their experiences with assessing large penalties and their success or failure after sentencing. I was speaking to a purchaser of distressed property today who was chuckling about a court case in a city where the corporation counsel was bragging about a $200,000 fine she had obtained against a developer. But, when the developer came to court, he said he’d declared bankruptcy, had no money to pay the fine or fix the building and was walking away from the entire mess. My caller said that the judge may as well have made the fine 2 million dollars because the person was never going to pay a cent.
Revoking a certificate of occupancy can be an important means of obtaining compliance. A strip club in Maine had its certificate of occupancy revoked recently. The Portland Press Herald said that the revocation occurred because
“of an inadequate sprinkler system and other violations.”
Prior to a certificate of occupancy being revoked, the owner/occupant is entitled to due process which means a hearing with the opportunity to be heard and a chance to present witnesses. This process is usually used after other less dramatic attempts at gaining compliance have failed, or if the danger to the public is substantial. In the guide books I have written, the Building Official and Inspector’s Guide to Codes, Forms and Complaints, the Fire Code Inspector’s Guide to Codes Forms and Complaints and the Residential Inspector’s Guide to Codes, Forms and Complaints, I have the necessary notices and appeal forms that fulfill the requirements of the model codes. It is important to follow the required steps to protect the local jurisdiction from liability.
Japan
There’s a saying that any kind of publicity is better than no publicity and I was lucky recently to be the subject of some good publicity. A local reporter called me wanting an interview about my recent work for a Japanese company. The reporter wanted to know how the internet has changed the way attorneys do business. I was pleased to tell him that one client (in Japan) found me through my blog. I wrote a paper on the effective enforcement of certain codes for the client and everything was done over the web via e-mail. This is something I never envisioned when I began my blog. It shows how universal the issues of code enforcement are throughout the world. We’re all dealing with issues of fire and safety prevention. Thankfully the United States is a leader in producing model codes due to the efforts of the International Code Council and the NFPA, among other groups. You can read the article in the Pioneer Press
.
Landlords are often concerned about damage to their properties by tenants, especially in college towns. Inspectors don’t care who caused the damage, just that repairs be made. Bill Kronstedt, a housing inspector for the City of Brainerd, Minnesota sent along information to me about a program landlords are requiring their future tenants college who are in college to attend as a condition of renting a dwelling. It’s UChoose offered by St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota. The program is described as:
U-Choose is an educational based campus prevention effort that focuses on the reduction of high risk
alcohol use. The program utilizes empirically based theories and approaches specifically designed for
college students.
It’s very farsighted on the part of the landlords to implement something like this before there’s trouble and I thank Bill for passing it on.
There have been too many deadly fires this past week and the one factor they have in common is that each of the buildings had preexisting code violations. The fire in Chicago in which 2 firefighters died after a building collapsed demonstrated the hazard of vacant buildings. Eight squatters died in a fire in New Orleans in a building that had been cited for structural violations in 2007. In Yonkers, N.Y. a man died in a residence that had been illegally converted into multiple dwellings, including a basement apartment. It was reported at LoHud.com that:
The day after the fire, city inspectors visited the property and issued four summonses against the Walshes for illegally converting their basement into an apartment, illegally using the first floor of their two-family home as a boarding house and blocking fire exits, among other violations.
Owners often get angry at building and housing code inspectors because they feel the inspectors are interfering with their ability to use their property as they desire and because compliance with the code costs them money. Tragedies like these demonstrate why we have codes and why strict enforcement is necessary.
It’s been so sad reading about the 2 firefighters who died in Chicago when the roof of a boarded up building collapsed on Wednesday. The owner had been cited for numerous code violations in 2007, especially for the roof. The building was boarded up but squatters kept breaking in. The firefighters were inside the building checking for people when this happened. The reason for the collapse of the roof has not yet been determined. Too many of these neglected buildings present a hazard for emergency responders. Owners claim they don’t have enough money to fix the buildings and it can take years for the courts to order them demolished. I know I keep preaching to the choir but these buildings don’t get in this type of shape overnight. Minor violations need to be addressed before they become big ones. It cost less to keep a property up than it does to bring it back from the abyss of deterioration.
There’s a very descriptive article about the worst bathroom in New York City at http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/the-worst-bathroom-in-new-york/
Justin said that a pipe had burst last January, gushing enough scalding water to turn the bathroom into a mold-filled, 24-hour steam room. Water damage had wrecked the floors. They were so rotted that you could dip your arm up to your elbow into the floorboard below the toilet. Meanwhile, huge chunks of the ceiling were missing, and you could see into the rafters above. I thought about Justin getting ready for school in the mornings. How did he take a shower?
It’s a sad reminder that without vigorous code enforcement, buildings deteriorate and people suffer. To think that a family would be better off in a shelter than in one of these buildings is tragic. Housing inspectors who make life better for people who are tenants should be proud of the work they do.
