"Amnesty" Period Turns Up 52 Unregistered Apartments in Burlington

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In the course of their travels, Burlington code-enforcement inspectors see a lot of apartments like this one (at right), with broken fixtures, missing smoke detectors and dangerously exposed electrical wires.

But it's the problem apartments the city doesn't know about that worries Code Enforcement director Bill Ward.

That's why, in February, Ward's office launched a two-month "amnesty period" to let landlords declare unregistered rental properties without incurring the normal penalties — up to $500 in fines and up to 30 days in jail. With three days to go before the amnesty window slams shut, Ward reports that the experiment turned up 52 previously unregistered apartments, which the city will inspect over the next 30 to 60 days.

"I'm somewhat pleased," Ward says. "I do think there's more out there."

Though he can't know for sure, Ward (pictured at right) estimates there might be 100 unregistered rental properties in Burlington and that the amnesty program turned up about half of them. At $75 a pop, the newly registered units will bring in a total of $3900 a year to city coffers. The amnesty period ends this Friday, April 1, and Ward is optimistic a dozen or more landlords might still come forward.

Burlington's 18-year-old rental-inspection program requires all landlords to declare rental properties annually and pay the associated fees, and to submit to inspections once every two or three years to ensure the units meet the city's minimum standards of habitability. Before the amnesty period, there were 9238 rental units in the city registry.

Ward guesses about half of the 52 newly registered apartments were condos that were owner occupied before being converted into rental units.

"Most of these, I think, are people who were not aware [of the registration requirement] and said, 'Thanks for letting us know,'" Ward says.

He reported the preliminary results to the city council on Monday and will issue a full report on the program in the coming weeks.

Comments

[rcarter]

This is the biggest joke in Burlington. Code Enforcement is a rash to landlords everywhere. They add costs and headaches to good business people.

[BurlyTenant]

Code enforment is there to protect tenants from unscrupulous landlords who are concerned about profit, not safety. Landlords take advantage of naive tenants because they can in this housing market. If you intend to provide a dwelling for profit, fulfill your obligations to safe housing! With that many registered units in Burlington, code enforcement has their work cut out for them. Are they properly funded and staffed to enforce?

[BenMac]

I feel that, if there's a problem with code enforcement in Burlington, it's that it is far too lax. Some of the dumps that I've seen during various apartment hunts over the years aren't even fit for rats.

[BurlyTenant]

Landlords who are "good business people" should have no qualms with meeting standard housing codes. Burlington landlords command top dollar for their apartments. Maintaining one's property should be considered a basic operating expense for a landlord. Anything less is negligence.

[jules]

@burlytenant & benmac; you are clearly not landlords and have no idea what it takes to own something, maintain it, make money off it, or deal with the city of burlington on a regulatory level. If you did, you wouldn't be renting anymore. Being a landlord is a big responsibility, and trust me most of them in burlington are good people and don't just want to make money. They want to own property, build equity, help people, and yes make some return on their investment.

[Jeff]

Jules - owning an investment property is a business. All businesses take time and money to keep going. Your statement is clearly disregards this fact. If your not prepared to update your investment property, then you should not own a business. Your mindset is your doing people a favor - in reality, we are doing you a favor by paying you money to live in the home you own. We are the customers. If you want to rent a rat hole then you will find ratty customers. The city of Burlington code enforcement 'enforces' landlords to update apartments with the simple neccessities the renter could expect. Your leaky ceiling is not tolerable.

[Srat123]

"The city of Burlington code enforcement 'enforces' landlords to update apartments with the simple neccessities the renter could expect."

On this I disagree. Some of these "necessities" include a railing on 3 steps under a drop-floor basement hatch, outlets every 6 feet on new major electrical work, GFCI breaker for a dryer outlet, and an inspection tag on a gas appliance installed brand new only 6-months prior.

Although I agree with the overall goal of enforcing standards, the enforcement is not equitable. Those who abide by the rules and open themselves up to inspections are the ones carrying the burden of unnecessary expenses. Fact is, no apartment is 100% in compliance with every rule. So what happens? An inspection is held, a small list of arbitrary rules is listed as things to fix so the inspector appears productive, the landlord addresses them, and life goes on. Meanwhile, across the street, the 4-plex apartment building with chipping lead paint, broken stair railings and garbage strewn all over goes unnoticed.

On another note, Code Enforcement is tasked with enforcing way too many different functions (housing, zoning, minor non-police issues like mattresses on the greenbelt, etc.). Their mandate is huge. The City Council - particularly Ed Adrian who was tasked with redefining responsibilities - failed in its recent duties to clean up this beast of burden.

[Cheryl]

"Burlington's 18-year-old rental-inspection program requires all landlords to declare rental properties annually and pay the associated fees, and to submit to inspections once every two or three years to ensure the units meet the city's minimum standards of habitability."
The last apartment I rented in Burlington 10 plus years ago never had an inspection from the city and I lived there over 5 years. A lot of this seems like a way for Burlington to get more money. A landlord wants to have a good rental so they get good money for the unit and good tenants. The naive tenants claim is a bit much. People need to take responsibly for themselves. Rental right are easy to find and understand. It just takes a moment to actually do it.

[Neil]

I lived in Burlington for 5 years too and I got visited at least three times that I can remember. My apartment was in pretty good shape. They did have the landlord paint over an old wet spot from a tub that leaked the floor above me from before we moved into the apartment and replace a broken fire alarm (which to be honest really didn't matter because the apartment was all of maybe 450 square feet and there were two other working alarms in the place).

[Jcarter]

"and an inspection tag on a gas appliance installed brand new only 6-months prior"

really? You think this is unreasonable? That someone come in and make sure a potentially lethal mistake isn't present is unreasonable? I guess you are lucky and have never bought anything that was defective out of the box.

Which units are yours, just so I know not to rent them? I value my safety and that of my children.

While there are many good landlords, I have had some, there are also some really terrible ones. I've rented places where a toddler fell through the my ceiling, the windows did not meet fire code, and the gutters leaked causing water to enter the basement and drip on to a 220V dryer outlet. Some landlords definitely look at them as a cash cow. Some genuinely look at them as an investment and are willing to make repairs so they can continue the investment into the future. As with absolutely everything in this world, the bad apples get noticed. If you are a good landlord, then as stated, you should have no objection to periodic inspections. If you object, well...think about selling.