When the signing of an informational form between tenants and landlords debuted as a code requirement in Athens last year, only about a quarter of the documents were returned to the city. Violators caught a break with lax enforcement of the new requirement ' in part because of already busy code enforcement officers and varying interpretations of who should sign the forms ' and no one was prosecuted, said Steve Pierson, director of code enforcement.
But that break is over and the city is stepping up enforcement, a move that Pierson anticipates will cost a lot of time and maybe several thousand dollars.
We knew the first year was going to be hard
and obviously voluntary compliance is not a process that has been effective he said.
Former city councilman Dale Tampke began pushing for a way to educate tenants about basic code requirements, such as where to store trash, after talking with some off-campus students who were unaware of the regulations. The result was a form that explains those requirements and must be signed by both landlords and tenants. The city's roughly 800 landlords bear the responsibility for submitting the forms to the city because they remain the same while tenants change frequently.
It was intended to be a simple process. Sign your lease sign the landlord-tenant agreement
get your keys
Pierson said.
So we'll actually see here coming up how many times it's not that simple.
That simple process didn't pan out in practice for the first year because many tenants had signed their leases months before the requirement went into effect in September 2006. This year, landlords have until Sept. 30 to file the documents with Pierson's office and then will receive a warning and an order to comply during the following two months if they don't turn them in. After that, violators' names will be forwarded to the law director for prosecution. I know that there's been some fuzzy items in it from the start
but sometimes the only way to get things working properly is to follow through
said city Service-Safety Director Ray Hazlett, Pierson's supervisor. If you just send this out and say
'Will you please do this?' it's never going to happen.
The city has about 5,700 rental units, and large housing complexes, such as Riverpark Towers, are exempt from the requirement. But Pierson said the interpretation of phrases in the ordinance like on-site management and dwelling unit could vary the number of exempt tenants. By one interpretation, he said, the ordinance might refer to a category of living units that doesn't even exist in the code. Thus, he argues that the intended targets of the agreement must be clarified before accurate enforcement is possible.
On that point, Pierson and Law Director Garry Hunter differ.
There's no reason not to enforce it
Hunter said, adding that he has no formal record of complaints or concerns about the requirement from Pierson.Code Enforcement has tended to err on the side of caution, as Hazlett prefers, sending the agreements to those units that fall within the gray area.
As of last week, signed agreements started to trickle in for this year, and Pierson had even received a few for next year ' a sign, he said, that the intended process is finally catching on.
Tampke said he thinks city officials should learn from the first-year experience. The relationship between the city administrators and the legislators is that if they don't have the resources to administer something
they should stand up and say
'I don't have the resources I need to administer this.'
And if many landlords fail to send in the forms
