By Megan Kelley
Staff Writer
Oxford – The Oxford Village Council approved the first reading of its proposed residential inspection ordinance by a 3-2 vote during its Sept. 12 meeting. Councilmember Lori Bourgeau and President Kelsey Cooke cast the two no votes.
There has been ongoing discussion regarding the need for a residential inspection ordinance to ensure that rental units within the village meet the appropriate level of safety for tenants.
While a majority of council agrees an ordinance is necessary, concerns have been raised about the amount of overreach the ordinance allows.
After a lengthy discussion on the topic at a previous meeting, village Attorney Bob Davis made several revisions to the proposed ordinance.
“We made some clean ups and I think what the council was looking for was to see a stand-alone ordinance related to residential inspection and keep it separate from the registration portion. We made sure everything was appropriate under the definitions and we spent some time making sure the wording on section 10 – the inspection scope – was accurate,” Davis said.
The ordinance also complies with concerns that have arisen out of federal court, such as not allowing unfettered entry rights into homes, Davis said.
While the ordinance states clearly that an inspection would be made within 60 days of registration and again every three years, it also says that no person shall lease, rent, occupy, or otherwise allow a rental unit within the village to be occupied, unless the requirements of the ordinance are met, which then could potentially create a problem with renters potentially coming to the village with landlord issues.
According to village Manager Joe Madore, that is something that already happens but that a lot of the issues they currently get calls about are problems that don’t necessarily need to have the rental inspector involved at all.
“To council, is this what we’re looking for? I’m not in favor of it anyway, but if we’re going to have something, this seems a lot more like policing power almost to an extent when you have residents call in and report things that their landlords aren’t taking care of,” Cooke said. “I thought the intent was to be: rentals are inspected to make sure they’re suitable living conditions initially, and then every three years. I don’t know how often that will be taken advantage of, but if we have people calling the village all the time because they have an issue with their rental (unit). Is that what we want?”
Councilmember Maureen Helmuth felt the ordinance was a good starting point for the village as did Councilmember Jacob Nicosia, who said he was hoping that establishing a “baseline” would cut back on renters calling the village for minor issues and incidents.
The council is expected to hold the second hearing and potentially approval the rental ordinance at its next meeting on Oct. 10.