The county here in St. Louis requires me to have a home inspection and a new occupant permit with every new tenant ($80). Is this common practice and should I comply. The last inspection I received cost me a new retaining wall in the yard(10k) + 30 smaller items around the house. I like to to do things by the book but am very hesitant calling for a new inspection this year and permit. I just leased the house out again to a new tenant Oct. 1st.
Thanks.
Is this something to do with your local section 8 office or is it a city ordinance?
City ordinance.
How stupid is that rule? If you have a high turnover rate that can get expensive fast. I definitely wouldn’t advise you to ignore this rule due to the legal ramifications that may be involved. They might do something silly like condemn all of your rentals until you comply, fine you a ton of money, or just plain never let you rent anything out ever again. I would definitely find your local REI club and get a movement going there to fight the law. Take up a collection and get a good lawyer to fight for you. You never know, your local club may already have a petition started.
I’ve NEVER heard of that before for non-Section 8…Does anybody else know of any other cities where this is also the case?
I’ve heard of just paying an annual permit, without inspection. Never a fee and inspection for every tenant at move-in.
What do people do? Do they charge an additional $80 to the first month’s rent?
In Buffalo it’s $10 per annum per unit for the registration…I just eat it…Due to the extreme amount of vacant homes (1 out of 6 homes in Buffalo is vacant), the city can get tough if you don’t keep up a property (or if you have a rehab waiting in line and it just sits there for a while) but I’ve never heard of a city inspection prior to a non-Section 8 rental…
Nothing like that exists in Virginia Beach (no rental registrations, inspections, etc.)…Very easy city to deal with for rentals…