To the editor:

The city of Lawrence is proposing the expansion of the rental registration program to the tune of $150,000. Inherently, inspecting all rental units in a community is a good idea, but I believe that the expansion of the current program is a bad idea for the following reasons:

1. The current rental program does not work. Current inspections are inconsistent and rather subjective. From my own experience, I have had a scheduled inspection in which the inspector walked up to the porch and passed the rental without entering the house. On the other extreme, on another unit, the same inspector was so incredibly biased toward the tenants that problems were invented.

I manage close to 100 rental units and have spoken to enough other landlords to know that my experiences are not isolated events. As long as current inspectors are not well trained to be consistent in their inspections, why add more?

2. Inspectors have broad and unchecked powers. Last summer, I had an inspector that lost control and was verbally abusive during a scheduled inspection. The incident was personally hurtful and offensive, but it was even worse to find out that the city has no mechanism for a citizen to complain against an inspector. Who polices rental inspectors?

3. The proposed fee is $60 per unit, a 240 percent increase from last year’s $25 per unit. In hard economic times it is unconscionable to simply legislate such a huge increase. Renters will be hurt with higher rents because of this.

Sofiana Olivera,
Lawrence