Agenda - Council - 10/27/2015 - Laserfiche WebLink

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• Minneapolis has a similar program run by their police department that is highly recommended and required in cases where there have been problems with a property owner. • Maple Grove requires crime free housing if the landlord owns more than one rental unit. • Coon Rapids and Shakopee report that owners grumble about having to take the class but then consistently give the class rave reviews after completing it. Most of them eventually concede that they're glad they took it. Other Crime Prevention programs? • Most of the cities that were surveyed offer crime free lease addendums on their websites that landlords can voluntarily choose to use. o A crime free lease addendum gives a landlord the right to evict a tenant who repeatedly engages in criminal activity who ever engages in certain types of criminal activity. o Shakopee, Maple Grove, Bloomington, West Saint Paul, and Columbia Heights require crime -free lease language which they specify in their municipal codes. • Many cities encourage landlords to run criminal background checks on potential tenants so they are better prepared to deal with issues that might arise even if they do decide to rent to someone with a criminal past. o Columbia Heights, Anoka, Maple Grove, Bloomington, and Shakopee require background checks for tenants o Coon Rapids actually requires a background check for the owner of the rental property and their property manager/agent and has restrictions on who can be a landlord. Why did Chanhassan get rid of their rental licensing program? • Somewhat political • Council felt that it took up too much staff time • Inspections were very frequent, semi-annually for some properties, and there was a resident backlash against the intrusiveness. • The city kept all the codes on the books and still enforce them on a complaint -based basis, they just don't do inspections anymore. How is Forest Lake (similar sized city) managing without rental licensing? • Forest Lake doesn't have a ton of rental properties that cause problems but there are a handful of repeat offenders • City has very limited tools for dealing with problem properties • Only real option is to declare a building to be a hazardous building if it gets really bad which involves both the City Council and the courts system • The City currently only has the authority to walk on the property, no ability to inspect interiors • The neighbors of problem properties call the city to complain a lot but the community doesn't seem to care very much.