Inspection fee may increase housing costs

By Heather Mangold
City Editor

An ordinance that would raise inspection fees for single family dwellings in West Lafayette will go before the West Lafayette City Council in April, possibly meaning that rental costs for students could rise.

City council member Brad Windler said that he would expect landlords to pass these fees on to student renters, but said he hopes that the supply and demand market would control rental costs. According to Windler, Purdue plans to keep enrollment at current levels while the number of apartments in West Lafayette is rising.

"If they (landlords) want to remain competitive, they are going to have to keep their rent prices in line," said Windler. "It is my hope that the supply and demand market will force landlords to eat most of the increase."

Single family homes are inspected every two years at a cost of $75, if the city ordinance is passed, those dwellings would be inspected every year for the cost of $300.

Windler said the West Lafayette's inspection fee program does not currently pay for itself.

"There are a whole lot of holes in our current ordinance that make it very hard for the inspectors to assess penalties on delinquent landlords," said Windler.

Last year, the city council wanted to remove those holes.

The council had a desire to make rental inspection program more self-sufficient so it asked Allen Grady, head inspector, to come up with a scheme to effectively assess fees where they need be, said Windler.

Grady told the council that he spends most of his time inspecting single family homes.

The biggest reason with the landlords of these single family homes were that landlords are uncooperative, hard to get a hold of or do not take inspection program seriously, said Windler.

The new ordinance designed by Grady would hold these landlords particularly responsible, forcing them to pay a larger share of the inspection costs.

"The reason we’re being a little nicer to the large apartment complexes is because they have professional management and professional maintenance on duty," said Windler. "They are always there when we need them and if there is a problem they usually have it fixed right away."

Windler confirmed that within this new ordinance, landlords of single family dwellings who do follow the inspection program will be penalized as well as the landlords who do not.

While local landlords are concerned about this new ordinance, Purdue students are as well.

Jessica Cavallo, president pro tempore of Purdue Student Government, said although city council members do not consider the ordinance to be aimed at students, they will.

"A lot of times the outlook on students by the community is not always good," said Cavallo. "They feel that we’re noisy and stay up to late."

Cavallo said that she feels that student rents are already being raised for next year and with the passage of this new ordinance, rent prices would continue to go up by a higher percentage every year.

The Purdue Student Senate passed a resolution on March 21 that voiced the senate's opposition to the city ordinance.

The senate's resolution states that West Lafayette city officials are trying to discourage the spread of single family rental properties by unfairly targeting single family homes that have been converted to rental properties. The senate expects the increase of inspection fees to be passed on to student tenants living in those rental properties, according to the resolution. It concluded by saying that it is unfair to target only single family rentals and not to address the same issues with larger apartment complexes.

"This ordinance is not geared towards students as it is trying to get landlords to do their jobs," said Windler. "Quality rentals are something the students depend on."

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City editor:
Heather Mangold

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