Council Finalizes Licensing

Rental licensing is a policy designed to increase landlord accountability by making contact information and complaint records available to renters through an online database that will be maintained by the town.

The council attached an additional amendment to the ordinance, which will take effect Jan. 1, 2003, and removed a provision that allowed for differential treatment of landlords based on the type of unit being rented.

The amendment that the council voted to include aimed to account for property owners' privacy and made it so renters with housing code violations are the only ones who will be listed in the online database.

Council member Mark Kleinschmidt said he was concerned that privacy would become an issue because the public would have easy access to all possible landlords. "The town has no business of maintaining an apartment guide online," he said. "We shouldn't force people to join our guide. Not everyone needs to be on an easily accessible list."

To combat this concern, the council voted to list in the online database only those landlords who violate the ordinance.

But Town Hall will continue to store records for all property owners and to make them available to the public.

The responsibility of keeping the system up to date will fall to Town Manager Cal Horton and the Chapel Hill Department of Inspection.

One proposal that was left off the final version of the ordinance was suggested by Horton and would have exempted owner-occupied renters -- individuals who rent space in a private residence.

Council member Jim Ward said he didn't think landlords renting out rooms either in their homes or on their properties should be held to a different standard.

"All renters and landlords should be treated equally," Ward said.

Lee Conner, a UNC law and business graduate student, spoke against giving certain landlords exemptions at Monday's meeting. "In a lot of times the best and the worst relationships are when you live in someone's house," Conner said after the meeting.

Conner was part of the Rental Licensing Task Force, which brought council members, property owners, students and residents to the table to mold the proposal.

"I think it's good that they heard our request and honored it to include owner-occupied units," he said.

Conner said that for years the town has required a database where violations are kept.

"(Now) by licensing landlords and treating them like a business, requiring $10 per month, which won't cause anyone's rent to go up that much, we can have that system," Conner said.

Once the system goes into effect, the council anticipates letting it run for two years and conducting an evaluation process by June 30, 2005.

Council member Bill Strom said he is optimistic about the program and thinks the system is open to change.

"This is very much a program that we know can be adjusted and changed down the road."

The City Editor can be reached

at citydesk@unc.edu.