City eyes apartment inspection program

Dan Kulin

Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2004 | 11:18 a.m.

North Las Vegas could become the first city in the state with a rental inspection program that would charge landlords a per-apartment fee and mandate annual inspections of every rental property.

City Manager Gregory Rose is proposing the "proactive rental enforcement program," which is scheduled to be presented to the City Council for the first time during a council study session tonight. During that meeting, the council could direct city staff to prepare the matter for a formal vote.

"The goal is to protect the public," Rose said. "There are a number of rental units, especially in the more mature areas, that aren't meeting a minimum standard."

But a rental inspection program would ensure that rental units meet at least a minimum standard for health and safety, such as having working smoke detectors and no frayed wires or holes in the roof, Rose said.

"This would reduce any further decay and improve the quality of life," he said.

The proposed program would charge landlords $50 a year per rental unit, and the city would inspect each rental unit at least once a year. According to city documents, the city has about 42,000 homes and an estimated 23,260 are rentals.

Landlords would be given at least 14 days notice of a coming inspection, and then would be given no more than 90 days to fix any problems uncovered during an inspection.

The proposed program also includes a "platinum properties incentive program," which would give landlords with exceptionally well-kept properties a one-year break from the fee.

New construction would be exempt from the program for two years.

Michael Klion, who oversees the 370-unit Buena Vista Springs Apartments in North Las Vegas, said he welcomed the inspection program because it helped ensure their apartments are in good shape.

"There's a need to keep the properties in decent condition because if you let them go and the properties deteriorate, that hurts your investment," Klion said.

Bob Borgersen, a retired grocery store owner from Chicago, moved to North Las Vegas in 1995 and owns five homes that he rents out. Borgersen said the program could be good for the city because it will uncover problems that some tenants might have been afraid to report on their own.

But Borgersen said the proposed program also raises privacy concerns for him, because it allows the city to essentially search thousands of private homes every year.

While city officials looked at several rental inspection programs, the North Las Vegas-proposed program is most similar to one in use in Santa Ana, Calif.

Dave Hermance, who manages Santa Ana's rental inspection program, said the program has been very successful since it was launched in January 1993.

Hermance said that in 1992 about 75 percent of the complaints his code enforcement office received were about rental properties.

In 1999, seven years after the program started, rental properties were the target of 17 percent of the complaints his office received.

In Santa Ana, landlords are charged $17.50 a year per rental unit, and have their rentals inspected at least once every four years.

"We had some opponents at first, but then they saw that this was intended to go after those they are not proud to have in their industry," Hermance said about the reaction of some Santa Ana landlords.

Ray Maggi, a past president of the Apartment Association of Orange County, Calif., said it took three years of tinkering with the Santa Ana program to get it right.

And Maggi said that while he has heard of other cities modeling new rental inspection programs after Santa Ana's, he's not sure they are.

"Some are using it just to make money," he said.

The proposed North Las Vegas program would essentially break even, according to city figures that estimate the program would bring in $1,163,000 a year, and cost $1,162,468 to operate annually.