Apartment Ordinance 2.0

[WAZ]

Houston is finally going to do periodic inspections of apartments! This is great news for everyone; not just tenants in apartments.

But as great as this is, it should be considered “Apartment Ordinance 1.0.” The biggest area for improvement is that the ordinance requires the inspection of ALL apartments every four years. Brand new apartments are on the same schedule as older complexes - even though older complexes are more likely to have problems.

I hope the City comes back and writes “Apartment Ordinance 2.0,” so older apartments are inspected more frequently. It could be a graduated schedule, based on a “clock” that starts from the apartments’ original certificate of occupancy:

The first inspection could happen 10 years after the original C of O.

The second, after 15 years.

The third, after 18 years.

The fourth, after 21 years.

The fifth, after 24 years.

After the fifth inspection, the property is inspected every 2 years.

“Apartment Ordinance 2.0” could encourage apartment owners to do the right thing. Owners could reset the clock on a property if they temporarily close the property, and do a gut renovation to bring it up to code. They could stop the clock by enrolling the property in HPD’s Blue Star program.

The new inspections are a great thing. Apartments have to meet basic standards of habitability and safety – and now those rules will be enforced. It’s also great that it’s not complaint driven. Apartment owners won’t blame neighbors when their properties are inspected. But as with anything new, there is room for a “Version 2.0”.

[ateas]

Great ideas!

The age prioritization thing is already sort of in there. Properties that never received their Life Safety inspections when they were required to back in the 1990's (mostly older ones) will all be inspected first, and new properties are exempt for the first four years from construction. Properties with no violations basically skip a turn after their first inspection. Hopefully, this will help the city focus on problem properties.

The ordinance text is available here:

http://haaonline.fil...n-ordinance.pdf

Andy Teas

Houston Apartment Association

[innerlooper]

More info including the checklist can be found here:

http://www.houstonmultifamily.org/

Dumb question: does an owner-occupied triplex have to be submitted to this program?

Thanks.

[musicman]

Dumb question: does an owner-occupied triplex have to be submitted to this program?

Thanks.

from the definitions posted, if any unit is rented then yes.

[innerlooper]

Thank you Musicman.

We are less than two weeks away from the registration deadline and a lot of rent property folks I'm talking to have never even heard of this ordinance. It was on TV and in the paper a couple of times but no mailed notification (presumably which could be created from HCAD records). There are hundreds if not thousands of little four to eight unit places out there, many owned by non-English speakers and/ or out of towners, and I'm wondering if we're not going to have a major scofflaw event here. While the intent of detecting and ameliorating hazardous conditions at rentals is a noble one, this may be a case of overreaching, particularly in a historically sloppy municipal oversight town like H.

Comments?