Prince George's County Broken Landlord Process (Clinton, North Beach: section 8, sale, apartment complex)

[justtitans]

Prince George's County over the past few years have made an effort to sure up their Landlord/Rental Property process, but in my opinion it has gotten a little too regulated. For starters, in order to rent a property out as a landlord, you are required to register your property with the government and obtain a Rental License, which is $75 and last for two years. That seems reasonable, but there is an issue with this. On the application for the rental license, you are required to include the information of your tenant. In other words, you need to have someone that is at least committed to moving to your property. For any landlord, the surest way of getting a commitment, is by having them sign a lease.

So after completing the application and turning it in, a law was passed last year that requires the county government to come out and inspect your property inside and out, as a part of approving your rental license application. No, I'm not just talking about certain properties, I'm talking about any property that is not being ran by some type of apartment complex. We are talking about thousands of properties that will have to be inspected. And to top it off, your rental license isn't really official until the inspection is completed and no issues are found. If there are issues found, then you are technically not allowed to have your tenant in the property until those issues are fixed and verified.

Does that make sense? You have to get someone to agree to living in your property, but they could be delayed from moving in if the county find an issue with your place (and by the way, there is no online checklist of what they look for, they just tell you verbally what they check). You are also subject to whatever schedule the county inspectors have, so if they are not available for the entire week, then that is a week of time that you miss out on and depending on your situation, could put you at risk of either violating the county law or dishonoring your tenant's lease agreement.

Has anyone dealt with this process? Had any issues? Are there similar processes in other local jurisdictions?

[North Beach Person]

We've had the requirement here for 20 years, using the MD Livability Code and the International Property Maintenance Code (which applies to all buildings, not just rentals).

The Livability Code requires such things as toilets, showers/bathtubs, heating, window screens if no central air, among other things. It ties into the IPMC with safety issues (stairways, lighting, etc.).

You may scoff, but unless you've been inside rentals (as I have) you'd be amazed at what some landlords try to get away with. Refrigerators in closets, water service through a hose from an adjoining property, no heat, even no shower or tub.

[justtitans]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

We've had the requirement here for 20 years, using the MD Livability Code and the International Property Maintenance Code (which applies to all buildings, not just rentals).

The Livability Code requires such things as toilets, showers/bathtubs, heating, window screens if no central air, among other things. It ties into the IPMC with safety issues (stairways, lighting, etc.).

You may scoff, but unless you've been inside rentals (as I have) you'd be amazed at what some landlords try to get away with. Refrigerators in closets, water service through a hose from an adjoining property, no heat, even no shower or tub.

Oh I agree. I have seen some awful rentals, but I think it is unreasonable to expect any landlord to have a tenant, but then delay the process of them moving in, if I were going through that process. To me, the best solution would be, to not require landlords to have tenants at the time of application, so that way the property can be at least registered and inspected before anyone even agrees to move in. Once you sign a lease, unless there is such language, both parties are legally bound to those terms and there is no real work around if issues are found.

[North Beach Person]

Jurisdictions are more and more going towards requiring landlords to supply contact and other information of their tenants. Some of that is because of overcrowding (minimum sq. footage requirements, for example) and some is because of other neighborhood type issues. Those are especially prevalent near the colleges, especially UMDCP. The MD Department of the Environment is also getting really tough on water and sewer use, which plays a part. You're going to see a Statewide inspection/licensing requirement sooner rather than later. MD Department of Planning has been hinting at it the last few years so it's coming.

[TechlawyerinPG]

It is basically another non-tax revenue stream. Similar to the requirement to license dogs which no one that I know with a dog does.
I wasn't aware of this new law until I went to the condo office to pick up something and noticed the flyers on the counter. I started renting my unit in 2005. Wow inspection also? Great I imagine for catching slumlords I guess but also a pain in the butt for those of us who wouldn't rent out a place in a condition that we wouldn't want to live in. If you are renting a condo you already have the condo keeping you honest on maintenance issues if they are managing properly. The condo just did an inspection of my unit as part of providing a resale package to the new buyer. Considering that so many in the property that PGTVA and I own at are doing section 8, they should be used to the inspections already.
I know I had a colleague who bought a rental condo in MoCo around the same time that I bought mine in PG and he had a lot of registration things to do there that I didn't have to do....MoCo also had rent control regulations if I remember correctly.

[North Beach Person]

Not really, the inspection process will pretty much zero out the license fee when you figure time, travel and admin support.

As I mentioned, we inspections imposed 20 years ago in order to have some control over the conditions of the rental properties we had then, some were in really bad shape. At that time we had no apartments (well only about 20 units total) and no townhouses. There were two landlords in particular who the law was aimed at. One, the smart one, understood what was going on and cleaned his places up (in fact, unfortunately demo'ed quite a few and rebuilt, which is good for the revenue stream) but we've been in Court constantly with the other one. The Town has won every single case, the money that individual has spent on legal fees could have remodeled every property in the portfolio.

[armory]

Who would rent a shotgun shack that doesn't meet their own standards?
Bad question - lots of people who have no choice.

Who monitors the private sale or rental of other private property such as cars, or other items? It is but another intrusion into the lives of citizens and another form of revenue generation. The condition of rental properties should be something an owner does out of pride but our whole country is in short supply of that - business follows what practices government dictates. The housing bubble of 07 can be traced back to legislation passed during Clinton's administration.
The banks complied to what legislators demanded of them - lending any amount of money for home purchase to those who couldn't afford to previously due to their financial situation. How many foreclosed or just abandoned the houses? How many of those people are better off now and how many can afford to buy a house today?
The more rentals that are in demand the more owners will try to slide junk onto renters. If renters held to a higher standard property owners will have to meet them. Getting government involved includes lots of red tape and fees, headaches for both owner and renter alike. Can the county/state afford the 1000s of inspectors needed to do this task? I think not.

[justtitans]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

Not really, the inspection process will pretty much zero out the license fee when you figure time, travel and admin support.

As I mentioned, we inspections imposed 20 years ago in order to have some control over the conditions of the rental properties we had then, some were in really bad shape. At that time we had no apartments (well only about 20 units total) and no townhouses. There were two landlords in particular who the law was aimed at. One, the smart one, understood what was going on and cleaned his places up (in fact, unfortunately demo'ed quite a few and rebuilt, which is good for the revenue stream) but we've been in Court constantly with the other one. The Town has won every single case, the money that individual has spent on legal fees could have remodeled every property in the portfolio.

I also wonder if they are using this process to prevent foreclosures from being rented out. Having leases in place during a foreclosure process actually benefits the owners who try to keep the properties and I wonder if they are trying to stop this tactic.

I definitely understand why they want to check the conditions of the places, but why even allow them to get a lease if you are going to be that strict? I rather be told in advance that my property needs work before getting a lease signed and opening myself up to a breach of contract suit.

[North Beach Person]

If they follow best practice there won't be an inspection every time a new lease is made, the inspections will likely (should) be just when the rental license is up for renewal. That's the common practice anyway but it is Prince George's.

A far as a previous poster saying "1000s" of inspectors, no. We've found each inspection takes about 2 hours which includes writing the follow up report. Obviously that's for a relatively issue free residence. Of course, if problems are found the time frame expands, especially if a follow-up visit is necessary. This is all done as part of the Code Enforcement Officer's regularly assigned duties.

[armory]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

If they follow best practice there won't be an inspection every time a new lease is made, the inspections will likely (should) be just when the rental license is up for renewal. That's the common practice anyway but it is Prince George's.

A far as a previous poster saying "1000s" of inspectors, no. We've found each inspection takes about 2 hours which includes writing the follow up report. Obviously that's for a relatively issue free residence. Of course, if problems are found the time frame expands, especially if a follow-up visit is necessary. This is all done as part of the Code Enforcement Officer's regularly assigned duties.

That was supposed to be 100s