(A) Rental dwelling list. The city shall maintain a list of all registered rental dwellings that includes the address of each rental dwelling, the owner’s name, the owner’s contact information, and the local representative’s contact information, if any.
(B) Rental dwelling inspections. Upon receipt of a rental registration certificate, whether pursuant to an initial registration or renewal thereof, the owner shall be deemed to have consented to an exterior and interior inspection of the one or more rental dwellings noted on the certificate as provided in this section. Such inspections shall be on the advance notice by the code official or other city official and at a date and time that is mutually convenient to the owner or local representative but which shall be no sooner than ten calendar days from the date of the code official’s notification to the owner or local representative of such inspection. The code official or other city official shall have the authority to conduct an inspection of the rental dwelling in the absence of the owner’s or local representative’s consent if the tenant has granted such consent.
(C) Cyclical inspections. The code official shall establish a cyclical inspection schedule for all registered rental dwellings that provides for each rental dwelling to be subjected to an exterior and an interior inspection about every four to five years. In no event shall a rental dwelling be inspected more frequently than once every four years unless the city receives a complaint from a tenant or another person regarding a possibly uninhabitable or a dangerous and/or unsafe condition in or about one or more of the rental dwellings. The city shall make the rental inspection schedule available to the public on the city’s website.
(D) Complaints from persons other than tenants. The code official’s receipt of a complaint from a person other than a tenant regarding the exterior of a rental dwelling shall be grounds for the code official to undertake an inspection of said exterior and the property on which the rental dwelling sits so long as the code official does not enter upon the said property unless the tenant, owner, or local representative gives consent to enter. If during such exterior or property inspection the code official finds a condition that reasonably leads that code official to believe that there may be a dangerous and/or unsafe condition within the rental dwelling, the code official or other city official may conduct an interior inspection with or without the tenant’s, owner’s or local representative’s consent but upon at least four hours’ notice. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if the code official or other city official reasonably believes that the dangerous and/or unsafe condition presents a clear and present danger to human life, health or safety, the code official or other city official may gain entry into the dwelling unit for purposes of immediately evacuating all individuals within that unit.
(E) Tenant complaints. The code official shall have the authority to inspect the exterior and interior of any rental dwelling upon a complaint from the tenant of the rental dwelling as provided in § 163.08 of this chapter.
(F) Inspections generally.
(1) Except as otherwise provided in this § 163.07, for any inspection conducted pursuant to this § 163.07, the code official shall provide written notice to the tenant as well as the owner or the local representative. The notice of inspection shall state a date and time for the inspection that shall be no sooner than ten calendar days from the date when the notice is sent to the aforesaid persons.
(2) If the code official is denied entry onto the rental dwelling property or into the rental dwelling, the code official shall have the authority to recommend that the mayor revoke the owner’s certificate for that rental dwelling and the same shall not be restored to the owner until the code official is permitted to undertake and complete the inspection. No tenant or other person, except the owner or the owner’s immediate family, shall be permitted to occupy the rental dwelling during the period when the certificate for that rental dwelling is revoked.
(3) The nature and scope of each such inspection shall be limited to the provisions in the city’s codes.
(4) For each rental dwelling inspected, the code official shall determine whether the rental dwelling has any condition that renders it uninhabitable or dangerous and/or unsafe.
(5) Upon completion of any inspection, the code official shall prepare a written inspection report. The report shall include, but not necessarily be limited to, the following:
(a) Address of the rental dwelling inspected;
(b) Owner’s name;
(c) Tenant’s name;
(d) Date of inspection;
(e) Description of all code violations observed or a statement that no code violations were observed;
(f) A code citation for each identified violation; and
(g) A date or dates by which each code violation found shall be abated.
(6) In the event that the code official finds any code violation that presents an immediate threat to human life, health or safety, the code official shall have the authority to direct the owner or the local representative, if any, to vacate the tenant(s) of that rental dwelling at the owner’s expense. If the rental dwelling is part of a multi-family dwelling building and if the code official reasonably believes that the aforementioned condition threatens human life, health or safety of any occupant in one or more of the other rental dwellings in the building, the code official shall have the authority to direct the owner or the local representative, if any, to vacate, at the owner’s expense, the tenant(s) of the one or more other rental dwellings directly affected by the condition in the rental dwelling initially inspected.
(7) In addition to subsections (F)(1) through (6), the code official shall have the authority to initiate a proceeding in the city’s administrative adjudication system provided for in Chapter 42 to abate the one or more violations noted in the code official’s written report.
(8) Prior to completing any sale of a rental dwelling, the owner or the owner’s local representative, if any, shall provide the prospective buyer with a copy of the most recent inspection report, if any, for the rental dwelling being sold as well as a written status report indicating whether each violation noted in the said report has been abated. In the event that the property being sold includes two or more rental dwellings, the owner or the owner’s local representative shall provide the prospective buyer with a copy of the most recent inspection report, if any, for each rental dwelling.
(9) Prior to completing the sale of any rental dwelling where the owner or local representative is aware of one or more pending code violations initiated by the code official, the owner or local representative shall provide the buyer with a copy of any warning, citation, or summons and complaint regarding the one or more code violations. The owner shall obtain the signature of the buyer on a document that, in substance, provides that the buyer has been given a copy of such warning, citation or summons and complaint involving the one or more code violations.
(10) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this § 163.07, the city shall retain the right to regularly and periodically conduct inspections of the exteriors of rental dwellings and the properties on which they are located pursuant to the city’s overall enforcement of the city’s property maintenance code (Chapter 167) so long as the code inspector does not enter onto the said property in the absence of the owner’s, local representative’s or tenant’s consent.
(Ord. 9467, passed 2-6-24)