College Station City Council discusses proactive rental inspection program

The Eagle
by BAILEY BROWN bailey.brown@theeagle.com
May 05, 2023 at 08:02PM

The city council in College Station, widely known as a college town with 27,000 rental units, recently discussed implementing a reporting process for rental property maintenance violations by discussing the possibility of drafting an ordinance for a mandatory or voluntary Proactive Rental Inspection program.

Currently there is no proactive rental inspection program required by the city. In September 2022, a number of College Station renters pleaded with the council in an effort to provide help for their growing concerns with landlords and safety and health issues, especially when an apartment does not meet a safe standard of living.

In order to address those concerns, city staff presented a Voluntary Rental Inspection Program that would track complaints from residents using SeeClickFix, an online and smartphone application that allows citizens to report code enforcement violations and other nonemergency issues, as stated on the city’s website.

Jennifer Prochazka, the city’s assistant city manager, said during a council meeting last month that since January they have received 15 reports when it comes to issues residents found in their living situation. She explained that the city then calls the resident to make sure they have initially addressed the issue with the landlord, and often find that might not be the case.

“Leases are legally binding contracts and they should specify the ability for the tenant to do a walkthrough assessment of the condition of the property upon move-in. It should specify how the tenant is supposed to notify the landlord of property maintenance issues,” she told the council. “It should also specify what the landlord’s responsibility is to repair those issues; that is a protection that is set up that more often than not. When we talk to particularly young renters, that is something we educate them on. So they are able to have those conversations with their landlords.”

The city has adopted the current International Property Maintenance Code, which indicates that the city has responded to complaints and requests for inspections by tenants, Prochazka said. Around move-in time, the city receives a majority of phone calls from parents of college students, as it might be the first time they have seen the home that their student has rented, and they have questions and concerns.

“We will address those with the tenants or their parents and more often than not, do inspections to the property to help remedy some of those items around move-in time,” she said. “Outside of that we usually get a call a week or so and within each month, two to three inspections or property maintenance walkthroughs that we do on the building department side.”

Additionally, owners with multiple units or multi-family properties should have regular inspections, which would help the city navigate how to implement the program, she said. As far as some of the challenges and concerns, Prochazka said they looked at other cities with these programs — many of which are not college towns,or are much smaller college towns.

“We have 27,000 rental units, that is a lot of units and because of that number scheduling inspections during the time between tenants would be potentially impossible,” she said.

If they were to do a voluntary program, a third-party inspector would be chosen by the city and the property manager would pay the fee.

If the city were to go ahead with a voluntary program where the landlords/property managers voluntarily choose to be a part of the process, Prochazka said there would be an inspection check list, with a third-party inspection for all types of rental units. Single-family, multi-duplex and multi-family units, interior and exterior areas, would be inspected based on factors that it meets basic health and safety needs.

Once it passes inspection, a certificate would be issued, and based on the ordinance those certified properties would be listed publicly, she said.

Jessica Williams, outgoing community relations chair with Texas A&M’s Student Senate through the Student Government Association, spoke during the meeting and said while she was excited about SeeClickFix integration, the program cannot be purely voluntary. As far as suggestions to implement a pilot program, Williams suggested a set of properties be required to be inspected in the first year, and have every property that had code violations be inspected.

During council discussion, a majority of the councilors were in favor of seeking a mandatory rental program. Mayor John Nichols noted a consensus directed for city staff to possibly build a proactive program targeted around the areas that needed to be inspected using a third party.

“Price it at rate. [The] mandatory part of it is pretty important, why not start as mandatory and [with] the aging factor, just try to do a few properties in the first year,” Nichols said. “Start out with a clear statement to target high-probability factors.”

Council also directed staff to look into if a property fails to get into compliance, would the rental permit registration be revoked?

Luke Morrison, incoming community relations chair with Texas A&M’s Student Senate through the Student Government Association, told The Eagle following the meeting that he was somewhat disappointed after the presentation.

“My predecessor had had some great conversations with various stakeholders throughout the city, and I thought we were going to get something with a bit more teeth to it," he said via email. "I’m definitely pleased that the College Station City Council is moving in this direction, but a voluntary rental inspection program does not address the problematic rental properties that we are trying to deal with because they simply won’t sign up for inspections. The council talked about scaling it toward mandatory over a period of time which would be a positive development, but I would hope that would move expeditiously.”

Morrison said his team is working to establish an off-campus housing office to help students be aware of expectations and rules around living in College Station.

“We also hope to start working with Aggie moms clubs and admitted student pages to raise awareness in that way as well,” he said. “No one should have to live in a house with toxic mold or doors that don’t lock. It becomes an issue of individuals' health and safety, and that is why it is such a priority.”