By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Bowling Green landlords have been granted a reprieve in completing inspections of their rental units.
With a split decision, City Council voted Monday evening to extend the deadline for the inspections another year. Voting for the extension were council members Bill Herald, Mark Hollenbaugh, Joel O’Dorisio and Greg Robinette. Voting against were Jeff Dennis and Nick Rubando. Rachel Phipps was excused from the meeting.
In October, City Council learned the vast majority of landlords had met the city’s new regulation to register their rental units, but very few had completed the required self-inspection reports for the units.
So an ordinance was proposed to delay the initial deadline for landlords to submit self-inspection reports.
The delay of the rental unit inspection deadline was proposed after city officials heard from local landlords that the inspection requirements were onerous. Since then, City Attorney Hunter Brown has been working to make the inspection checklist both comprehensive and user friendly.
Brown reported Monday evening that the self-inspection forms have been revised to make them easier to complete, but yet still cover the necessary criteria.
While the city’s rental registration process was deemed a success – with close to 6,500 units being registered – the inspection program was behind schedule. As of early October, inspection forms for just over 400 addresses had been submitted to the city.
Some landlords reported to city officials that the inspection requirements were too cumbersome.
Last month Steve Green, liaison to the Northern Ohio Apartment Association and owner of Mecca Management in Bowling Green, said he is not opposed to the city’s new ordinance requiring registration and inspections by the property owners.
Green is, however, concerned about the complexities of the inspection requirements.
“I think we all need to take a step back and take a look at this,” he said.
Green suggested it would be in the best interest of landlords, tenants and the city if the inspection forms were simplified.
“I’m just looking at this from a common sense perspective,” he said. “It can’t be a book on each unit. It should be a checksheet.”
The original deadline for initial self-inspection reports was Oct. 1 of this year. But Brown had already been asked to push back that date to Dec. 31, 2023. The ordinance approved Monday would push that back further, requiring the initial reports be filed with the city between June 1, 2024 and Oct. 1, 2024.
Robinette said the roll out of the initial inspection checklist was not as smooth as it could have been.
But Rubando said he wasn’t inclined to give landlords more time, and Dennis noted that the deadline had already been extended.
Hollenbaugh, however, pointed out that summer would be an ideal time for inspections of rental units, since landlords would have greater access to units vacated over portions of the summer.
Also at the meeting, a citizen voiced her concerns about a letter to the editor printed in the Sentinel-Tribune that accused Dennis of a conflict of interest since he owns a rental property and has been voting on legislation involving rental units.
Vassiliki Leontis noted that Dennis has been “fighting to regulate rental properties,” which seemed to be the opposite of showing any conflict of interest. After the letter appeared, Dennis asked Brown to review the potential problem.
“I don’t feel there is a conflict at all,” especially since Dennis did not benefit from the issues he voted to support, Brown said.
In other business at the City Council meeting, a homeowner in the 200 block of Crim Street spoke of her sadness about a utility pole being moved into her front yard.
Jean Martin shared that her front porch is the gathering place for neighbors, and her front yard is a point of pride.
“Most of the houses put in an awful lot of effort” into their yards, Martin said.
Recently, the city utilities department moved a pole into her front yard, approximately 20 feet from her front porch.
“We have tried so hard to keep things looking nice,” she said. But the pole has created an eyesore in her yard.
Martin asked city officials to consider moving the pole to its previous location, which still has all the utility drops.
