DETROIT – For years, the process has been difficult, expensive, and full of bureaucratic red tape, but now Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and others want to streamline what needs to be done to get rental properties compliant.
That’s because, right now, only about 10% of the city’s more than 80,000 rentals are in compliance.
If approved, the inspection process will become easier for landlords, homes will be safer for tenants, and Detroit’s escrow program will be open to many more residents.
Detroit City Councilwoman Mary Waters introduced a new proposal to improve the safety and quality of rental properties for Detroiters.
“We must never have another child die due to unsafe, dilapidated housing as what happened with Ca’Maya Davis,” said Waters.
The 11-month-old Davis died after falling through the floor of her rental home.
Only 10% of the city’s 80,000-plus rental properties are in compliance, and city officials hope revamping the rental ordinance will help change that since the old way of fining problem property orders hasn’t been effective.
“Those hundred thousand tickets that we wrote, 80% of them went unpaid,” said Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.
Changes would include streamlining the inspection process and allowing safety inspections and lead checks to occur in the same visit.
“It will help the landlords, the tenants, then you won’t have to pass down costs to all of the tenants,” said a woman.
The inspection and certificate of occupancy fees would go from $1,000 to $150.
And there are stricter penalties in place for landlords who do not comply.
“Under Councilwoman Waters’s ordinance, we’re going to be able to put leans on those for unpaid bills, which means those landlords will never be able to sell their houses without paying their fines,” Duggan said.
Problem properties would undergo more frequent inspection.
The escrow program will help renters in Detroit, but it is currently inaccessible. Only 20 people each year can benefit from setting rent money aside until property owners address problems.
It will soon open up to more people renting apartments in Detroit, who will also be eligible to participate now.
