Syracuse’s Common Council on Monday will consider passing stricter inspection requirements for rental properties in the city, which could affect homes in the University Hill neighborhood.

Councilor-at-large Khalid Bey proposed a resolution during a Wednesday study session that would allow the code enforcement department to conduct interior inspections of rentals, when requested by the landlord or occupant, or ordered by a judge.

A similar proposal, also proposed by Bey, failed to pass in 2016 after five councilors voted against it. Three of those councilors, Joseph Carni, Chad Ryan and Susan Boyle, still hold positions on the council.

Bey on Wednesday was quick to point out that two items councilors objected in his 2016 proposal had been cut from the new proposal. Those provisions included an increase in the rental registry cost and an exemption for religious institutions.

Included in the new proposal, though, are periodic inspections for one- and two-family rentals. Bey said the new inspections rules would help crackdown on landlords who are “serially negligent.” The councilor said it’s up to a judge to decide when a landlord has, “dropped the ball.”

Rentals with three or more families are already subject to periodic inspections, said Ken Towsley, director of the city’s code enforcement.

Councilor Joseph Carni, of the 1st district, immediately objected to Bey’s proposal Wednesday, citing reasons for his original opposition to the 2016 proposal.

“How is that different from what we currently do?” Carni said of Bey’s proposal. The city already allows interior inspections that are done when requested by the occupant, Carni said.

Towsley said code enforcement department does not actively pursue warrants to inspect the insides of rentals, nor does it have probable cause to enter a rental based on its exterior.

“There’s nothing on the books to allow us to go in there unless it’s a tenant complaint, and if it’s a tenant complaint, we’re already in there,” Towsley said.

Councilor Joe Driscoll, of the 5th district, asked Towsley if an environmental impact study would give the city probable cause to do an interior inspection.

In 2006, Rochester implemented a “lead law” that allowed city inspectors to enter rental homes to check for lead paint as part of the city’s certificate of occupancy.

“An environmental impact study should be performed with the lead issue we do have in the city,” Towsley said. He added that an assumption of the presence of lead would allow inspectors to enter homes.

Bey clarified that the proposal was not solely about the city’s lead issue.

“Yes, lead is an issue, but you also have houses that are exposed to the elements,” Bey said. “You have houses that are rodent-infested … those people still have issues.”

Bey said he once got a call from one of his constituents who was distraught because they wanted to call code enforcement, but feared retaliation from their landlord.

When Councilor Latoya Allen, of the 4th district, asked about possible pushback due to the proposal, Towsley said, in addition to the issue of probable cause, the code enforcement department would have to re-allocate its resources to handle the amount of new required inspections.

The code enforcement department currently handles more than 70,000 inspections each year with 25 inspectors, Towsley said. If all the tenants of the city’s one- and two-family homes requested interior inspections, the department would have to do an additional 8,500 inspections, he said.

Without reaching a consensus on the proposal Wednesday, councilors decided to further discuss the topic in a session sometime next week.

Published on January 31, 2018 at 11:51 pm

Contact Casey: casey@dailyorange.com | @caseydarnell_