Spring Valley council to revise rental property ordinance

The Spring Valley City Council on Monday asked city attorney Colin Barry to draw up a revision to its residential rental property ordinance that will save the city some money.

Barry said the city’s initial inspections of the estimated 500 registered rental properties in town are about 80% complete – far enough ahead of schedule that inspectors hired by Eric Carls of Carls Engineering began conducting follow-up inspections on those already covered once.

In many of those cases, the infractions were minor – such as the lack of a smoke detector – and, per the contract, Carls was able to charge up to $130 for each follow-up.

However, because some of those were such small matters, he was not charging the city for them. In some cases, the property owner simply took a picture showing the repairs were done and sent them to Carls.

“For minimal stuff like that, he didn’t feel right in charging for them,” Barry said. “At a meeting with him last week, we agreed to take a look at the language of the contract with him and with the tenants, and change that to time and materials. … We’re not here to make a profit off this process, just cover our costs.”

Barry said the other 20% of those property owners – some of whom are fighting it, while others are dragging their feet or just haven’t met with the city yet – are being contacted.

Property owners are paying a $100 fee for the initial inspection, while the revision could lower the cost of follow-ups to $25.

The council took no action at Monday’s meeting.

On another matter, Alderman Ken Bogacz provided the council for its inspection and review a list of proposed street repair projects for the coming two years, prepared by the city’s streets and alleys committee.

Bogacz said there is about $620,000 available, which is equivalent to about 20 blocks worth of work.

The final list of projects should be finalized at the next council meeting Feb. 5.