Lima council met Monday to review a draft ordinance that would create a landlord registry, which supporters say would make it easier for safety services to contact landlords during emergencies.
Photo by Mackenzi Klemann | The Lima News
LIMA — Lima councilors have revived debate over a proposed landlord registry, which would require landlords renting within city limits to list their rental properties and share contact information with the city.
The Lima Council of the Whole met Monday to review a draft ordinance establishing the registry, during which councilors argued over who should have to register: all landlords, or just those who have a history of building code violations and delinquent property taxes?
Council President John Nixon initially suggested implementing a performance-based system in which landlords who maintain their properties — determined by the number of code violations documented in the last year — and who keep up with their property taxes would not be required to register.
“We need to take a rifle to the problem, not a shotgun,” Nixon said, adding: “You need to zero in on the problem situation, the problem landlords, not all of them together.”
But Nixon withdrew that suggestion amid criticism from councilors Peggy Ehora, Jamie Dixon and Carla Thompson, who said the main purpose of the registry is to identify who owns rental properties so they can be contacted during emergencies, particularly out-of-town landlords who purchased property through shell corporations that obscure their identities.
“In a city where the fire trucks never stop going, where most of our housing stock is 100-years-plus, that’s definitely something that’s very important,” Thompson said, “so I’m not quite sure how to get away with registering some people and not registering others.”
Thompson said poor tenants may not report housing concerns either for fear of eviction, as many now live under month-to-month leases.
The draft also drew criticism from seventh ward Councilor Jon Neeper, who said he would not support mandatory inspections.
Nixon suggested an alternative that appeared to appease both sides of the issue: require all landlords to register at no cost, but only mandate inspections when a landlord has been cited for at least two code violations in six months or four violations in one year.
He suggested other revisions, like increasing fines for tenants who make false reports and a clause to hold landlords and the city harmless when properties are deemed uninhabitable due to damage caused by a tenant, which will be considered when councilors discussion the proposal next on Monday, Oct. 16.
