As Minneapolis nears a day that always seemed beyond the horizon -- the completion of inspections for every rental unit in the city -- it's gearing up a new inspection regimen that gives the worst rental properties the most scrutiny.
Twenty years after the city adopted rental licensing, the last backlogged inspections are being conducted. That will bring an end to the provisional licenses under which some buildings operated without inspections for that entire time.
Now rental units with the worst records will be checked annually, while those with clean records may not get an inspector's visit for eight years. Tenants' complaints will always get priority, however.
"I'm just so pleased about this," said City Council Member Don Samuels, who lives in an area pocketed with rental property. The new scheme was previewed before a council committee Monday but doesn't need council approval.
The plan will be a bonus for responsible landlords by treating them commensurately with how they manage their property, Samuels said. It also will help tenants living in substandard units and give relief to neighbors of badly run property, he said.
JoAnn Velde, the city's housing inspection director, said the most scrutiny will go to about 450 buildings. They rank highest on a city scale that assigns points according to their records for police calls and criminal activity, nuisance conditions, housing code violations, and cooperation with the city.
But close to three-fourths of rental buildings in the city likely won't see an inspector for eight-year periods. About 5,000 properties in a middle tier will be on close to a five-year cycle.
Rental licensing began in 1991. When the Star Tribune checked at the program's 10th year, only one-third of a then-estimated 75,000 rental units had been inspected. The pace sped up after new regulatory officials created a revolving fund that used license fees and citation income to finance inspections. After a fire last April above a Lake Street bar that killed six people, supervision and scheduling for inspection of larger and mixed-use buildings was shifted from fire to regulatory officials.
