City considers third-party rental inspector

The quality of life of some residents and the structures they inhabit could improve as city officials consider a new rental property inspection program, ordinance and enforcement.

On Tuesday, Creston City Council met with Jason VanAusdall of Iowa Inspection to discuss rental inspections. No action was taken.

VanAusdall is no stranger to Creston. He conducts building inspections in Creston with Veenstra and Kimm, which provides commercial, industrial and other inspections on municipal projects. Iowa Inspections is VanAusdall’s own business.

“We’re here to discuss the possibility of the city entertaining the idea of doing rental property inspections within the city limits,” he said. “You just can’t even imagine the things that a rental property inspector see out there in the public.”

VanAusdall said a town of Creston’s size would benefit from implementing a rental property inspection program.

“You have a college here, you have an airport, you have a lot of things going on,” he said.

For rental property inspections, Iowa Inspection contracts with seven communities in Iowa.

“It’s one of those problematic things for a city to take on,” said VanAusdall. It’s a long, hard road. There’s nothing easy about it.”

A minimum standard would follow state building code minimum standard for compliance and housing.

“If you were all nodding yes tonight, this is what we want to do, I would say, ‘Great.’ In one years’ time, let’s go ahead and do this.”

The reason VanAusdall said to move forward with city rental-inspections next year is to allow property owners time to bring their properties up to minimum compliance standards.

“Pressure wash their homes, pick up the debris in the yard, make adequate living facilities in those homes,” he said. “A lot of people live under the guise that a lot of these homes that look great from the curb side are great. I’m here to tell you tonight, they are not. It is amazing what happens behind closed doors.”

The process of rental inspections is something VanAusdall said is based off of experiences in Ankeny, which first implemented its rental inspection program in 1982.

“Through the school of hard knocks and changing their code, checklists, policies and procedures, we have learned from that,” he said. “And from that, we have evolved in to what we have now.”

VanAusdall provided the council sample material, including Oskaloosa’s rental inspection ordinance, to show an example of what it could look like.

“And it’s your code. You can change things,” he said. “You could allow things, disallow things. It’s an ordinance, so you can make it your own. We would also want to make it in compliance with your code enforcement.”

Duties for code enforcement would not be the sole responsibility of the city official responsible for rental code enforcement. When VanAusdall asked the council who handles code enforcement, a bit of laughter erupted and no one in the chambers could offer a clear answer. It was mentioned that “three or four people” share that responsibility for the city.

“If we’re out in the field doing a rental property inspection, there is no reason, in my eyes, to shuck off a duty just because that property has something that could be handled by the code enforcement officer,” VanAusdall said. “I can name off a few different things, but I think you understand what that duty does. We’re there anyway, we’re going to enforce those same codes and rules anyway and we do that.”

Iowa Inspection’s services are funded through user-based fees. The fee imposed on a property owner is comprised of a portion for the inspector and a portion for the city.

“Your fee is the registration fee,” VanAusdall told the council. “Your registration fee should reflect the time and effort, clerical and administration to run that program. Mine is pretty simple.”

VanAusdall collects $75 per rental and an additional $25 per rental under the same roof. For a duplex, VanAusdall’s fee is $100, for a quadplex, VanAusdall’s fee is $150.

Mayor Gabe Carroll asked what is the frequency of the fees/inspections.

“Is this yearly, every three years?” He asked.

“It’s actually up to the city,” said VanAusdall. “Mitchelville, DeSoto, Colfax are on a two year turnaround. Most cities are on a three year turnaround.”

VanAusdall said the city could write an ordinance “to include a carrot and a stick.”

He said, if a property passes without issues, the city could change those property owners to a four-year plan. This type of incentive would be written into an ordinance, if adopted.

“On the flipside, I won’t use the word ‘hoarding,’ but I’ll use the word ‘excessive fire load’ – just a disaster inside and out – and there’s lots of them,” said VanAusdall.

VanAusdall said he and his staff are good at their jobs.

“I’m very thorough, I’m professional, we do our job well, but we’re also compassionate,” he said.

VanAusdall said, typically, with housing that has issues, there are underlying issues such as mental health.

“Maybe it’s a depression issue, it’s some kind of struggle they are going through. We are compassionate to that. We understand they aren’t going to get it taken care of in 60 days. “What we will say is, ‘Communicate with us about what you’re going to do to move forward with that process, let us know what you’re doing and we’ll set up a phased improvement of that property ... we’re going to be coming back,” he said. “We’re wanting to see forward progression to bring that property up to compliance and then, if they dig their heels in, that’s another conversation we can have.”

VanAusdall advised the council to call other cities that have implemented Iowa Inspection’s program.

“If you adopt this, it’s not going to be an easy road,” he said.

City Administrator Mike Taylor said Creston’s rental property ordinance went well for about four years when it was first implemented nearly a decade ago, but with personnell changes, it has become difficult to keep up.

“I’m involved with the housing committee, and it keeps coming up at housing comittee that we need to try to do something to try to improve the stock and living conditions.

Taylor said he reached out to VanAusdall after talking to other cities about their rental property enforcement efforts.

“I just felt, if we’re going to make it go, this is the way to make it go in my opinion,” he said.

When Creston made its ordinance, it removed any fees and penalties out.

“You couldn’t hold anybody’s feet to the fire,” Taylor said.