SALISBURY – Before taking the final steps on more stringent measures against over-occupancy in rental units, city officials ensured the legislation will be fair to renters abiding by the rules.
On Monday evening the City Council considered two business items that would address over-occupancy in rental units, more specifically address issues with rentals housing rowdy college students.
The ordinance in its final reading before the council states, “The Department of Neighborhood Services and Code Compliance (NSCC) is experiencing a rise in over-occupancy violations. Due to this rise in over occupancy, there is a need to strengthen the enforcement for occupancy violations. A reduction in the allowed occupancy of nonconforming uses where over occupancy has occurred is desirable. The addition of denial, nonrenewal, revocation or suspension of a license or registration will make enforcement more effective.”
“This has been discussed a number of times. The initial purpose of this ordinance was to add over-occupancy to the list of things that would enable the city to deny, suspend or refuse the registration of a property,” City Attorney Mark Tilghman said.
The ordinance goes on to amend sections of the City Code to include language relating to over-occupancy of rental units and where the policy will come in play.
Joining the ordinance was a resolution approving a policy of enforcement of over-occupancy provisions, which state, “The purpose of this policy is to link any violation of the occupancy provisions … to the Housing Officials authority to deny, revoke, suspend or not renew a landlord’s, Rental Unit Owner License or Rental Unit Registration…when appropriate, to reduce the maximum allowed occupancy of a non-conforming use. The policy will ensure proper execution of the occupancy provisions set forth in this code by the housing official and all enforcement staff.”
In the City of Salisbury predominantly, occupancy is limited to either a “family” that is defined by the Salisbury Municipal Code or two unrelated persons. Fines and penalties exist for non-compliance, and residents, landlords and new leases are encouraged to know the current occupancy requirements in single family neighborhoods.
According to the proposed policy, if an over-occupancy violation is identified, a citation for a municipal infraction is issued, and at the same time, an Investigation of Excessive Occupancy letter is issued requiring the property owner to contact the NSCC regarding this matter within 10 days. Immediately following the 10-day time period, if the structure remains over-occupied and the landlord has not taken action to evict the persons who over-occupy the property, an Order to Vacate the unit will be issued and 60 days will be given for occupants to vacate the premises.
Additionally, rental unit registration will be suspended once an inspection has confirmed that the unit has been vacated. The first offense will result in a three-month suspension, a second offense will result in a six-month suspension and a third offense will be a 12-month suspension.
Council members questioned using the language “license and registration,” and how the ramifications will affect innocent tenants that are also under an entity’s rental license besides the problem property.
“Each individual unit is registered. The license would apply to the legal entity that owns the number of registered units,” Tilghman said.
The policy clause regarding the suspension of the rental unit license is the key, Council President Jake Day asserted.
“The policy says exactly what the process is. We are saying here are the exact steps of the process. It does not talk about the license at all,” he said. “The policy is clear that this pertains to the rental unit registration in regard to occupancy, not the license.”
Councilwoman Laura Mitchell pointed out the word “license” is used throughout the ordinance and policy.
“It implies that it would include the license … how is that not related?,” she asked. “By taking the rental license of an owner, you are affecting people that have done nothing wrong.”
After much back and forth, Tilghman simply suggested adding the sentence, “This policy is not intended to authorize the suspension, revocation or nonrenewal of a rental license as a result of over-occupancy of a rental unit” to the resolution.
“I believe that proposal will address concerns. I don’t believe it is anyone’s intention here to cause an entire apartment complex to have their license revoked. Our intention is to protect our neighborhoods,” Day said.
Councilwoman Shanie Shields and Tim Spies stated their support as long as the pieces of legislation protect multi-family units. However, they both also stated the implementation of the policy will not stop college students from partying.
“We are not going to tolerate it,” Spies said. “Let’s just get busy with this. We go through the same thing over and over while our property values fall. We have laws that will accommodate this. One, two and three warnings just don’t cut it and we need to become more stringent.”
Both the ordinance and resolution received a unanimous vote for approval.