Overcrowded properties, neglected repairs, faulty wiring and even a missing basement window.

These are some of the issues Austin Mayor Tom Stiehm hopes will be addressed and avoided if the city of Austin joined other cities in forming a rental ordinance to set guidelines for landlords and rental properties.

“If you’re going to rent property out, your property needs to meet a certain standard,” Austin Mayor Tom Stiehm said.

Steihm said his interest in a rental code ordinance started when he spoke with a welfare investigator who was looking for a person suspected of welfare fraud. The welfare investigator located this person at an address and called the property’s landlord, but the landlord didn’t know who was living in the property.

“You try to get a hold of the owner, and the owner might live in southern Illinois,” Stiehm said.

“A lot of rental ordinances say if you don’t live within a hundred miles, you have to have a representative living within so many miles,” he added.

Stiehm said many cities have rental ordinances, including Albert Lea and Rochester. An ordinance in Austin would ensure that landlords who live a long distance from their tenants still maintain their properties in Austin.

“If these people are going to make money on houses and rental property in Austin, then they should have some responsibility to the people in Austin.” Stiehm said.

Karen Mattson, deputy director of family housing with the Austin Housing and Redevelopment Authority, said that a rental ordinance could correct some problems.

“If you’re a long-distance landlord, if you live in Arizona, you should have somebody in charge of your property,” Mattson said. “What happens if the heat goes out? If something springs a leak? You should have somebody local.”

Another concern is the number of people living in a rental property. Often times, Stiehm said, people will complain of 15 or more people living at one location, which often leads to a large amount of noise.

An ordinance would set restrictions concerning how many people live in a rental property and would also define what qualifies as a person living there. Someone could just say they’re visiting, even though they’ve lived in a property for months, Stiehm said.

Rental ordinances can vary as to what type of things are required. For example, in Rochester, landlords need to a have rental license, which includes a fee, Mattson said.

The right fix?

While Mattson wouldn’t be opposed to an ordinance, she’s concerned about fees that often comes along with rental ordinances.

“I don’t know that a landlord ordinance will fix every problem in town,” Mattson said.

Issues can arise if a landlord lives out of town or isn’t actively involved in maintaining a property.

In certain instances, Mattson said inspections of a rental property may correct a problem. For example, she once saw a home where wiring was done with an orange extension cord, and she saw another property that didn’t have basement windows.

“I see a lot of different units that could have benefited from an inspection, and I see a lot of different tenants who could have benefited from an inspection,” Mattson said.

Likewise, Peter Grover, who owns 19 rental properties around Austin, said any kind of ordinance should not include any more fees. Grover said his properties are already subject to inspections by the fire department and insurance companies.

Such rental property problems can be caused by negligent landlords, ones who don’t want to spend money on expensive repairs, Mattson said.

Problems will come up in all properties from time to time, Mattson said, and it’s important to have such issues dealt with promptly.

A well maintained property often translates to strong tenants, Mattson said.

“I know there are landlords out there who just put out the best product,” Mattson said. “They’re clean. They’re well tended. To my way of thinking, the better unit you present, the better tenant you get.”

At the same time, everyone needs a place to live and not everyone can afford a certain type of housing, Mattson said.

“All walks of life, all types of people — everybody needs a place to live,” Mattson said. “I’m not advocating bad housing on their behalf, but I think everyone should have safe housing.”

Grover said the state of the property often sets the tone of the landlord-tenant relationship.

“I have a rule of thumb: I wouldn’t want anybody living in a property that I wouldn’t live in myself,” said Grover, and an active member of the Austin Area Landlord Association.

Broad brush

These rental property issues don’t pertain to all landlords, and most landlords live in the area, Mattson said. Mattson said most landlords, especially those involved with the Austin Area Landlord Association, are responsible and take good care of their property.

“The landlords who take good care of their property and the landlords who are bad landlords, it’s a shame but they all kind of get painted with the same brush,” Mattson said.

Steihm said the ordinance isn’t meant to just punish landlords, as he said it’s important to work with landlords to also see what their needs are.

“We’d like to work with them,” Steihm said. “This isn’t just to nail the landlords to the wall.”

“We’d like to see them be a part of anything we do and get their feedback,” he added.

However, Grover said such concerns aren’t limited to rental properties.

“We’re seeing more and more distressed private property. … The problem is beyond just rental properties,” Grover said.

Often times, people falsely associate such issues with rental properties, Grover said. Grover said he’s filed complaints about private properties next to his rental properties before for noise violations or garbage in a lawn.

As a landlord, Grover doesn’t oppose an ordinance to set housing regulations, but he said such an ordinance should be broad and should target all properties, not just rental properties.

“I think a lot of the problems the community is concerned about occur on private property, not just rentals,” Grover said.

Grover said most active landlords don’t allow a large number of people to live in a home and ensure their properties are well kept.

Grover screens all his tenants, and he said he writes a detailed lease that will address problems. For example, the lease lists each person living in the property. People not listed aren’t allowed to live in the property: “If they’re not on the lease, they’re out,” Grover said.

However, Mattson said screening a tenant doesn’t always result in a tenant-landlord relationship free of problems.

“All they have to do is go out and fall in with a whole new bunch of people — get a new boyfriend, get a new girlfriend, get a new best friend. … That’s all it takes, and all of a sudden this stellar tenant fell into the abyss somewhere,” Mattson said.

Grover also checks his properties several times a week to make sure everything is alright.

“I actively monitor my properties, and I think landlords who are on top of their business do that,” Grover said.

Cooperation

A few years ago, Grover was driving to Rochester with his wife when he read about a shooting at one of his properties in the newspaper. He quickly turned around to go to the property and see what happened. Grover said the police department needs to be open to inform landlords when there’s a problem with a property.

“I think the police department needs to make greater effort to communicate with property owners and let us know when there’s a problem, because we want to know immediately when there’s a problem with our property, because we deal with them,” Grover said.

The Austin Police Department’s Crime Free Multi-Housing Program is aimed to give landlords tools to combat crimes involving their property. For example, some landlords have tenants sign a lease addendum stating that they can be evicted if they commit a crime.

Chad Norman, a patrolman with the Austin Police Department, said landlords can stop by the dispatch office and see a list of police calls at a property during the last month.

Timetable

Stiehm said he’d like to see an ordinance discussed before this summer. However, the ordinance likely won’t be discussed until other issues, like vacancies in the Austin Police Department, are resolved. If it isn’t discussed before summer, he’d like to see an ordinance in place by the end of his term.