Raleigh Considers Inspections, Licenses For Rental Property Owners

As the city considers cracking down on the people who own rental houses,some landlords are organizing a fight against it.

"When I lived here in early 1978, this was a smaller street, no curb, no gutter -- none of that fancy stuff," said rental property owner Alexander Nixon of a house near North Carolina State University.

Those are not the only things that have changed.

"What looks like individual houses were owner occupied. Now, none of them are," he said.

"While many landlords are responsible and the tenants are very responsible, Ithink you've got a growing number that are not and that's where we'regetting the rundown properties, noise violations, parking violations," saidCouncilwoman Janet Cowell.

Cowell and Nixon are on Raleigh's Neighborhood Preservation and HousingTask Force.

The task force is making recommendations on ways to improve rentals, butlandlords like Henry Bergdolt have problems with many of the recommendations.

The recommendations include requiring inspections of single-family homesconverted to multifamily use and requiring a license to operate a rental house. Landlords who own duplexes would also have to be licensed.

"The tenants are the ones who are really going to lose, because thisoverhead is going be charged to someone and if the property owner isn't going to be ableto absorb all of it, the tenants are going be stuck with it," Bergdolt said.

"Having a licensing would help us track where the rental houses are andproactively stop problems before they start," Cowell said.

There is no stopping the controversy. It has already started and therecommendations, which are currently in a city council committee, have yetto make it to the full city council.

The Wake County Apartment Association and the Triangle Real EstateInvestment Association have started spreading the word to its membership.

The groups plan to start a letter writing campaign to city council members and show upat council meetings to protest when this does come before the full council.