Slumlords, the City’s Got a Warrant

This just in off the Nick Licata wire.

Last week, the State Legislature passed SB 6459, which:

• Authorizes a local municipality to require a landlord to provide a certificate of inspection as a business license condition.
• Requires a qualified inspector to only investigate a rental property for building and housing code violations that substantially endanger or impair the health or safety of tenants and their neighbors.
• Authorizes issuance of a search warrant to certain code enforcement officials that have not implemented a mandatory third party inspection program for the purpose of allowing the inspection of any specified premises to determine the presence of an unsafe building condition or certain violations.

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The city thought it had the problem of substandard housing solved many years ago, when it instituted a registration program for landlords that included a housing inspection to insure things were up to code. But city landlords sued in 1994 to prevent housing inspectors from entering the premises, arguing that a warrant was required. (Licata explains that a court could issue a search warrant only if a criminal fire code violation existed.) Sixteen years later, the city has its warrant.

As an example of what scofflaw landlords have tried to get away with, Licata cites the instance of a a UW student whose room came with a furnace, and who had to go to the hospital twice because of carbon monoxide poisoning.

To sum up, tenants, the guy in your corner is still Nick Licata.