With such a large number of Kansas University students living in off-campus housing, Lawrence has a special responsibility to monitor the safety of rental properties in the city.

Establishing regular inspections of multi-family rental property in Lawrence seems like a reasonable and prudent step in that direction.

Local residents were reminded of the city’s code inspection laws recently when tenants of two apartments in a house at 1008 Miss. were ordered to move after inspectors found code violations that could compromise their safety. Those violations, however, were discovered only after one of the tenants complained to city officials.

According to city ordinance, inspections of multi-family properties are done only when a tenant complains about a possible violation. Inspections of single-family rental houses and duplex rentals are required every three years.

It’s hard to understand why inspections are not required for multi-family rentals, but it’s a policy city commissioners should change.

The property at 1008 Miss. was found to have no smoke detectors, a poorly constructed deck that served as the only access to the top floor apartment, basement bedrooms with no windows or windows too small to provide escape from a fire, and other deficiencies. The landlord, who had purchased the house 10 years ago, said he had no idea the property didn’t conform to city code. Ignorance may be bliss, but city officials should take this excuse away from local landlords.

A representative of Lawrence landlords told the Journal-World that rental owners probably would oppose an inspection requirement for multi-family housing. Inspection fees and property upgrades could be costly, he said, and those costs would be passed on to tenants through higher rents.

Adding smoke detectors to a rental house is not a major expense, and if more expensive repairs are needed to achieve minimum safety standards, so be it. Lawrence tenants have a right to expect their rent to assure them living quarters with working utility systems, a safe structure and basic fire protection.

Landlords who would oppose such a plan also might consider the protections it could afford them if something does happen on their property. The owners of a home at 1045 Tenn. currently face a lawsuit filed by the family of a woman who was injured in a 2004 fall on the property. Among other allegations, the lawsuit claims that the fact the house didn’t meet city buildings codes contributed to the accident. Periodic inspections can warn owners when problems exist, and a clean inspection might lessen a landlord’s liability.

One city official estimated that annual inspections for multi-family rental property probably would require four additional city staff members. Doing inspections every two or three years would be less expensive and probably accomplish the same goal.

Considering all the health and safety regulations most businesses must satisfy these days, requiring income-earning rental properties to simply meet the city’s basic building codes doesn’t seem too much to ask.