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Adopt on first reading, Ordinance No. 9110, amending Chapter VI, Article
13, Sections 6-1301, 6-1302, 6-1303, 6-1305, 6-1309, 6-1310, 6-1320 and
6-1326 of the Rental Licensing Ordinance; and approve revisions to Residential
Rental Property Ordinance Administrative Regulations (Policy Number AP-113).
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Executive Summary:
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On May 3, 2018, an appeal of a
Municipal Court conviction for failure to renew a Rental License, Section
6-1320(a) (Unlawful Acts) of the Residential Rental Property Code, was adjudicated
in the District Court of Douglas County, Kansas. The court ruled that the
language in Section 6-1320(a) does not sufficiently identify the failure to
renew a rental license to be an unlawful act. In response to that ruling,
staff has amended the language to clearly identify that failure to renew a rental
license, which is required annually, is an unlawful act.
Staff is proposing other
amendments to the Residential Rental Property Code and Residential Rental
Property Ordinance Administrative Regulations (Policy Number: AP-113) that
staff believes are beneficial to property owners, property managers and staff.
Most of the revisions have already been successfully implemented by policy
or procedure, with no complaints or issues identified by stakeholders, and
are considered by staff to be “code language cleanup”.
Planning
and Development Services staff has worked closely with the Senior City
Attorney and City Prosecutor to draft Ordinance
9110 and to revise the Administrative Regulations (Policy Number: AP-113)
for City Commission consideration and approval.
Proposed
City Code Chapter VI, Article 13 Amendments
Below is a summary of proposed City Code amendments set
forth in Ordinance 9110.
·
In Section 6-1302 (Definitions), a
definition of “Person” is included to close the potential legal and
prosecutorial loophole related to the use of the terms “Owner”, “Licensee”
and “Person” in the current code. In addition, new definitions for
“Long-term”, “Short-term” and “Rental License” have been added and other
minor amendments to several definitions have been made.
·
In Section 6-1303(a) (Rental License
Required), language was added to clarify a current valid Rental License is
required before a Dwelling Unit is to be rented to a tenant. This amendment
was necessary to address the District Court’s ruling that is identified
above.
- The requirement for the property owner’s signature on a license
application is amended in Section 6-1305(e) (Rental License Application)
to allow the City to accept a Resident Agent’s signature in lieu of the
owner’s when the owner requests a Resident Agent to act on their behalf
in regard to compliance with the program’s regulations. (This has been
implemented by policy and procedure).
- Section 6-1309(b) (Rental License Renewal), which established a
$5.00 license renewal application late fee, is deleted in its entirety.
Staff is of the opinion that the late fee does not act as a deterrent to
not license a unit, and causes more confusion to applicants and more
tracking issues for staff than it is worth to collect. The consequence
of prosecution and paying a fine for failure to renew has been a
sufficient enough penalty. (This has been implemented by policy and
procedure).
- New language is added in Section 6-1310(c) (Inspections) to
exclude units that qualify as New Construction or Major Reconstruction
from the universe of Dwelling Units licensed by an Owner/Licensee from
the total number of units used to determine the 10% inspection sample
size. (This has been implemented by policy and procedure).
- New language is added in Section 6-1310(c)(2) (Inspections) to provide
staff the ability to approve a plan of corrective action with the
owner when the sampling inspections of similarly-designed dwelling units
of the same structure or apartment complex reveals there is a recurring (identical)
violation within the similarly-designed dwelling units. If a plan of correction
action is not submitted or approved, staff shall request that all other uninspected
similarly-designed dwelling units of the same structure or apartment complex
be inspected to verify the recurring (identical) violation exist. (This
has been implemented by policy and procedure).
- As mentioned, new language is added in Section 6-1320(a) (Unlawful
Acts) to clarify that the failure to renew a Rental License annually is
an unlawful act.
- New language is added in Section 6-1326(l) (Exemptions) to clarify
that residential rental property, structures or buildings owned by the
City of Lawrence, Douglas County, the State of Kansas, the United
States, the University of Kansas or Haskell Indian Nations University
are exempt from licensing requirements. (This has been implemented by
policy and procedure).
- In Section 6-1326(j) (Exemptions), added Dormitory Housing, as
that term is defined in Article 20-1701 of the Land Development Code, as
exempt from the provisions of the code in since this use is very similar
to Greek Housing, which is already exempt.
Proposed Residential
Rental Property Administrative Regulations Revisions
- Section
3.0 (Master Licenses Unified Multifamily Developments/Apartment
Complexes) is revised to reduce the number of units eligible for a
Master License from 11 or more to two (2) or more. Staff has found
greater efficiency in issuing a single Master License instead of several
individual licenses for multi-unit structures under single ownership. This
revision has no negative affect for owners or tenants, but a very
positive affect in work efficiency for staff. (This has been
implemented by policy and procedure).
- Section 5.0.D. (Inspection Procedures) is added per the
requirements of the proposed new language in Chapter VI, Article 6, Section 6-1310 (C)(2) of the City Code. Section
5.0.D. outlines the procedural steps that are followed by the Code
Official when a sampling of similarly-designed dwelling unit inspections
reveals a recurring (identical) violation. (This has been implemented
by policy and procedure).
- Section
7.0 (Educational Materials) is deleted in its entirety. Staff realized
that the annual mailing of postcards to tenants could be viewed by
property owners and property managers who were compliant with the
licensing and inspection requirements of the ordinance to be an
adversarial City notification. Additionally, it produced very few
inquiries and a substantial number of returned mailings. Due to these
findings, staff eliminated the mailing several years ago without any
negative feedback or consequence.
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