ONEONTA _ More than half of all rental properties in the city are out of compliance with local housing regulations.
And one in four do not have up-to-date smoke-detector inspection reports, according to the city Code Enforcement Office.
This could lead to the kind of tragic fires that prompted Oneonta to toughen its housing regulations in the 1980s, said Fourth Ward Alderman Michael Lynch.
It is also costing the city money as the Code Enforcement Office repeatedly sends letters to property owners to get them to comply with the city's regulations, Lynch said.
Code inspector Patricia Roodhof, in a memo sent to Lynch on Tuesday, recommends the city adopt a system of civil penalties for overdue inspections and inspections forms. Lynch brought the request to the attention of aldermen at Tuesday night's Common Council meeting.
Out of 955 rental residential properties in the city, only 410 have valid certificates of substantial compliance as of Tuesday, according to Roodhof's memo.
"It's staggering," Lynch said. "That is way beyond what I expected to find."
Certificates of substantial compliance are issued to owners of properties that substantially meet state and local building, fire and housing codes. Among other uses, these certificates are required by the city for property owners who rent to tenants and apply for summer-rental permits. The certificates are needed for all residential rentals, including single-family homes, duplexes, apartment buildings and commercial buildings that have one or more rental residential units.
In order to maintain a valid certificate of substantial compliance, a property owner must be up to date on inspections of heating systems, electrical systems, sprinkler inspection reports and smoke-detector inspection forms, according to city regulations.
The cycle of inspections ranges from every nine years for electrical system to every year for smoke-detection systems. But according to city records, some of these inspections are years overdue.
In the case of smoke-detection systems, property owners must either perform the inspections themselves or have it done by a licensed electrician. A signed inspection form must be submitted to the Code Enforcement Office every 12 months, according to city regulations.
There are 221 rental properties in the city whose owners have overdue smoke-detector inspection forms, according to Roodhof.
Alderman: Enforcement process is flawed
Lynch said that with the heating season arriving and the prospect of residences seeing greater occupancy due to the struggling economy, this issue needs to be addressed soon.
Lynch said the blame does not lie with the Code Enforcement Office, but rather with the system for dealing with those who don't comply with the city code.
"If we want to enforce a landlord who is derelict in submitting his forms, we have to take them to court," Lynch said.
This is time-consuming, can result in unfavorable rulings and ties up the resources of the code enforcement office, Lynch said.
The Code Enforcement Office may also seek an unsafe-building declaration for a property that does not have a certificate of compliance. However that is also a time-consuming process, according to Roodhof's memo.
A system of fines for overdue inspections and inspection forms would help ease personnel pressure on the Code Enforcement Office, as well as save the city money on postage, according to Roodhof.
"The Code Enforcement Office thinks that is going to increase compliance exponentially," Lynch said.
Roodhof has been handling the day-to-day operations of the Code Enforcement Office since the Feb. 20 retirement of former Code Enforcement Officer Peter Friedman.
Before his retirement, Friedman was working with the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee on an ordinance that included stiffer penalties for property owners who violate city codes.
Lynch suggested this deserves to be looked at again, and soon, especially in terms of smoke-detector inspection compliance.
"That's the one most likely to save someone's life," Lynch said.
Lynch, speaking during Tuesday night's Common Council meeting, called on IGA to revisit Friedman's earlier proposal.
IGA committee member Lizabeth Shannon said her committee would be taking up the issue, which she said was set aside after Friedman retired.
"This is definitely something we intend to work on now," Shannon said. "We are not going to wait around until we have a code enforcement officer."
City officials have previously said a new code enforcement officer would not be hired until 2009.
City Attorney David Merzig advised the Common Council to move cautiously in adopting a new system of enforcement.
"Whenever you implement a new system, there is going to be a law of unintended consequences," Merzig said.
It would take at least a year for the Code Enforcement Office to fully implement a new system of enforcement, he added.
"It's not going to be a snap of the fingers," Merzig said. "That's the nature of the beast."
