Tenant and neighborhood advocates won't support proposed RUCO changes

Vote by RUCO Advisory Board scheduled for Thursday

The RUCO task force plowed through draft revisions to the city of Greensboro’s ordinance governing inspection of rental units during two days of meetings last week despite notice from representatives of neighborhood associations and a tenants advocacy organization that they would likely not support recommendations eventually destined for a city council vote for final approval.

The option under discussion was proposed by Marlene Sanford, president of the Triad Real Estate and Building Industries Coalition, or TREBIC. It would strip the ordinance of key provisions requiring certification of all rental units and providing for proactive inspections through sampling. Inspections of rental units can also be initiated based on complaints from tenants, a petition filed by a sufficient number of neighboring residents or exterior violations observed by city inspectors.

Donna Newton, advisor to the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress, said her membership will require its representatives on the task force and the RUCO Advisory Board to vote against any motion that eliminates proactive inspections, especially on single-family houses in the rental market.

“We think this will ultimately come to council,” Newton said during the first of the two meetings, “but the congress is going to be in there actively fighting for sampling and proactive inspection of single-family housing that comes on the rental market.”

Newton said the neighborhood congress, whose membership is largely comprised of homeowners, will likely draft an alternative proposal with others in a pro-RUCO coalition that includes tenant advocates to bring before council.
Real estate industry representatives have proposed toughening language in the ordinance to more aggressively target so-called “problem properties” in exchange for striking provisions for proactive inspections through sampling.

Task force members skirmished during the second day of negotiations over a proposal to add a provision giving inspectors the discretion to inspect all units in a particular building if they found violations inside a quarter of the units through complaints or other existing triggers. Newton and inspection manager Dan Reynolds said the 25 percent threshold was too high.

Then Sanford proposed an escalating set of triggers that appeared to create a small patch of possible common ground. She suggested that if in the course of their normal duties inspectors found violations in 1 percent of the units in a building, they would have discretion to inspect 10 percent of units. If, in turn, they found violations in 10 percent of units, they would then have authority to inspect all units. For example, if violations were found in one unit in a building with 24 units, the inspector could choose two more units to inspect. If all three were found to be in violation, the inspector would have license to make a comprehensive review of all apartments in the building. (Additionally, if violations were found in 1 percent of units within a complex, inspectors could look in 10 percent of the units in the complex; violations found in 10 percent of the units would trigger an inspection of the entire complex.)

“I would agree with that,” Newton said.

Beth McKee-Huger, executive director of the Greensboro Housing Coalition, indicated in an e-mail on Monday that her organization continues to support proactive on all rentals, including multi-family.

McKee-Huger called the draft language allowing violations found in 10 percent of units to trigger inspections throughout a building “a good plan for dealing with problems after they occur, but RUCO prevents problems before they get to this point.

“Some examples of the value of prevention,” she added. “Restaurants get inspected proactively and their sanitation grades are posted, rather than waiting until people get sick or see rates and then calling the health department.”
Even less agreement was reached on inspection of single-family rental houses. The draft revision strikes language allowing for inspectors to sample 2 percent of single-family rental houses to provide a sentinel effect to ensure that inside violations do not go undetected because tenants are afraid to complain to their landlords. Newton said her organization’s membership is concerned about property values being undermined by substandard single-family rental housing coming on the market.

“Say I can’t sell my house and I put it on the market, most people do not know what it would take to make that house safe for habitation,” she said. “Particularly for single-family housing — we have a lot of property owners that I suspect live in housing that is not safe for habitation — particularly for single-family housing, I think that the initial RUCO inspection before it goes on the rental market is critically important. And now particularly because we have so many new rental houses going on the market… the person who owns them might be in California, or Timbuktu, or Canada.”

In place of proactive inspections, the draft revision includes new language stating, “The appearance of an exterior violation shall constitute probable cause to inspect a single-family dwelling unit or apartment building.”
Sanford distributed the new revised draft ordinance to task force members by e-mail last night, and members were expected to respond by noon today with a message indicating whether they agreed. The revised draft ordinance will be recommended to the RUCO Advisory Board at its next meeting on Thursday. Sanford acknowledged that representatives of the neighborhood congress and the housing coalition might not end up supporting the task force’s recommendation on Thursday.

Newton responded this morning: “The position of the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress remains that we cannot support any proposal that excludes the proactive components of RUCO.”

The RUCO Advisory Board, which has a majority comprised of landlords, is likely to approve any recommendation that strikes language from the ordinance requiring certification and proactive inspections. Some of the industry representatives on the board are designated appointees such as Lisa Dellinger, an employee of Koury Corp. who represents TREBIC; and Bryon Nelson, who represents the Triad Apartment Association. Others, who have been appointed to “general citizen” or district representations slots — such as Greensboro Landlords Association President Bobby Akin; District 3 appointee Peter Placentino, who is employed by Brown Investment Properties; and District 4 appointee Dawn Chaney of Chaney Properties — happen to be landlords or members of the property management industry.

A recommendation by the RUCO Advisory Board in favor of the language drafted by TREBIC would advance the proposal to city council and would likely prompt a political fight, with members and supporters of the neighborhood congress and the housing coalition coming before council to express their objections. Lacking unanimous support from the stakeholders, council members would find themselves in the awkward position of having to choose between satisfying members of the real estate industry, many of whom finance their political campaigns, and siding with active neighborhood leaders who organize and attend candidate forums.