Yountville Landlords Resist Mandatory Inspections; Rental Registry Still on Table

Saturday, April 22, 2017
Howard Yune
Napa Valley Register

To Yountville leaders trying to learn how much local housing is dirty or dilapidated – or being used as illegal tourist getaways – compiling a list of all the town’s rentals has seemed a logical step.

But a proposal to require landlords to register their units with the town has stirred pushback from property owners fearing another part of the plan – mandatory inspections of all units, whether owned by scofflaws or those sticking to the law.

An ordinance to create a mandatory rental registry, which the Town Council had passed earlier this month, stalled last week during a normally routine second vote that followed complaints by several homeowners about a clause to require city checks on all tenant housing once every two years.

Facing a nearly full Town Hall chamber, council members dropped the in-home inspection requirement and hastily passed a new ordinance requiring only registration and an annual fee to let out rooms, apartments and homes.

A second approval vote would put the rule in effect in early July, giving landlords until Jan. 1 to list their properties with the town – and until the first day of every year to renew their rental permits.

Keeping tabs on Yountville residential rentals will help the town more quickly address homes with unsafe living conditions or owners opening up homes to tourists in violation of the town’s ban on rentals shorter than 30 days, But while several landlords showed little objection to such a list, they argued that actually letting town officials through their doors – in the absence of violations – would invade their privacy and dissuade others from making housing available.

“I personally find the concept of the government coming into my house every two years as draconian,” Larry Knapp, Yountville landlord and a real estate broker for 48 years, told council members. “I was raised in New England and we were proud of our rights, as everyone in this room is. It seems a little oppressive.”

Mandatory in-person checks also could leave landlords vulnerable to inspectors dropping in after one renter’s departure before a home has been prepared for the next resident, he added. “Sometimes we only have a matter of hours to do a deep-clean,” said Knapp, “and your inspector would have to fit into that schedule.”

Other speakers called such a requirement unneeded, calling on Yountville to stick to the existing tools of violation notices, communication with property owners, and state tenant protection laws.

“If substandard housing is what you’re getting at, there are better ways,” said Daniel Sanchez, representing the North Bay Association of Realtors. “You can red-tag and notice properties, work with property owners themselves. If that is indeed the issue, then deal with that.”

A blanket inspection rule, Sanchez added, would be wasteful not only of landlords’ time but that of town code enforcers.

“You should exempt new construction – it’s not going to have anything substandard because it’s new,” he told the council. “It would be like changing the oil in a car with only 1,000 miles on it. Really pointless.”

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