Letter to the Editor: Making money on rental properties in Newton

I recently read that the city council has put a temp hold on rental inspections program is unfair to them. As a past landlord I have seen both the old system and the new system. Funny thing is the old system had issues with landlords also. As an electrician I had the opportunity to visit several rentals and could find issues with each one that had never been fixed by landlords.

Several were houses that were split into 2 one bedroom units. These type of units had just one panel that served both units. Meaning if that one tenant did not have access to reset their own tripped breakers without contacting the other tenant.

Another group had exposed romex running along the floorboard so that rooms would have outlets.

Another group had broken or missing light fixtures.

On one of. The above mentioned issues (exposed romex) I had contacted the fire marshal who at the time was doing the inspections and asked if this was allowed in rentals? Since he had just issued a permit for said units. His response was if he required ALL landlords to make repairs then they would make no money.

Now in the current program the city has choose only one outside person to do the inspections.

I assume the city had given this individual their min. requirements for rental properties.

You now pay $75 per inspection plus a reinspect fee, which is different from the old system which was free, with no re-inspection fee ( since no re-inspection was done).

Current system you are sent a copy of the inspection checklist prior to inspection. So in reality the landlord should have all issues fixed prior to inspection and not need a re-inspection.

Bottom line is these landlords don’t want to bring their buildings up to code or spend any money to repair items.

I feel that you and each city council member should tag along on 2 different inspections each, to see if the landlords complaints are justified, before ruling on this issue.

One solution would be to send the landlord the previous years inspection report, and for inspector to bring it along to insure the issues were corrected.

Below is a few issues that I found on Facebook of units for rent in Newton.

I saw mold around tub/showers, missing light fixture covers, along with outside handrails not going the whole length of outside stairs.

These units are up for rent do they must of passed an inspection.

But then the landlords feel they should not be required to make these repairs? Because it would cost them a couple hundred dollars when units are renting for $750 min in Newton.

Seems to me that this group is more concerned about making money then keeping properties safe.

Jeff Pelock

Newton