Landlords, tenant decry home inspections

One landlord said tenants would be justified in using force against city officials inspecting a home without permission.

Another compared city officials to Nazis.

And when it was done, no one on the Lawrence City Commission or any of the other city officials present said a word in response. Instead, they adjourned  still committed, apparently, to inspections of rental homes in single-family districts of town.

But not because it’s popular among many landlords.

“I urge you to re-look at this ordinance and stop forcing your way into people’s homes without their permission,” said Mark Lehmann, a landlord who ran for the commission in 2001 and is now a member of the Citizens Rights Committee planning a federal lawsuit about the issue.

More than 1,000 rental homes in single-family zones have been registered under the inspection ordinance, which commissioners passed last year. Some tenants have refused to allow the inspections for building code violations; the city on Thursday began serving administrative search warrants to enter those homes anyway.

Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall issued an opinion in March that said the ordinance limiting the number of unrelated people in a single-family home was acceptable, but that a court may have to decide whether the inspection policy was an invasion of privacy.

The item wasn’t on Tuesday’s commission agenda, but two landlords and two tenants showed up to raise the issue. They said the searches violate the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches.

“Adolf Hitler had little loopholes, too,” Lehmann said. “He came into people’s houses when he wanted to.”

City officials say the ordinance will help them enforce another ordinance, limiting single-family rental homes to three unrelated persons. Officials say it will also help them protect the health and safety of rental tenants. Mary Jones, whose home was inspected last week under a search warrant, said she didn’t want the protection.

“This is my home, and this is personal between me and every person who supports this ordinance or enforces it,” she said. “It’s absolutely personal.”

Lehmann’s son, 21-year-old Owen, is also a landlord. He said some tenants might not accede to search warrants.

“I think somebody will use force,” Owen Lehmann said. “I think force will be used.”

He later added: “I think that person’s justified in (using force), because they have a right to say no” to their homes being entered by the government.

His father urged the commission to repeal the ordinance before the lawsuit goes forward.

“You will lose,” Mark Lehmann said. “You will lose because you are wrong.”