On July 9th, the Paris City Council will hear a proposal that will affect landlords of single-family rental properties in Lamar County if passed.
As posted on CitySquare Paris Facebook page, the proposed ordinance will require renters to have a roof over their heads, doors in their entries, glass in their windows, access to water and sewer, and safe electrical and gas connections.
According to the proposed components of the residential property maintenance ordinance, failure to maintain residential rental properties to any of the standards set forth will constitute a violation of the ordinance subject to prosecution in the Municipal Court and, upon an adjudication of guilt, punishable by fine of between $1.00 to $2,000 and court costs.
The proposal also states owners/defendant shall be assessed a fee of $25 for each such inspection.
Local rental property owner, Skyler Burchinal said he isn’t necessarily against the ordinance but wants to know what plan the city has moving forward.
“I’m not necessarily opposed to it,” said Skyler. “I want to know, before we enforce more regulations on rental properties as a whole, lets first ask why these people live in these situations and what are we going to do after these ordinances get passed.”
According to the proposal, the ordinance is currently for single-family homes.
“Why are they just proposing this for single-family dwellings and not all rental properties? For most landlords, this proposal is not going to affect them but for the landlords, it does affect, will they put forth the effort to fix these properties. If not several things will happen. They will put people out of these rental homes or they will let the property go back to the city and the city will have the burden of demo and mowing.”
The proposed ordinance will be brought up at the Paris City Council meeting Monday, July 9th.
The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m and is open to the public.
“I believe these are standard things that every house should have but my concern is the landlords that won’t do it and ultimately put more people out of homes. I’d like to see this be beneficial for everyone.”
