SLO rental inspections are a violation of rights
Renting is a way of life for many in our city. The vast majority of these rental units are safe, clean places that many call home. Unfortunately, there is a very small percentage that are substandard.
As a Realtor, property manager and president of the San Luis Obispo Association of Realtors, I have a pretty good handle on what the city is attempting to do: make sure everyone has a safe place to live.
The city has several existing codes that could use to reach their goal, without this overbearing ordinance that narrowly passed.
This ordinance punishes the property owners who are maintaining their property by instituting a tax on their property to pay for an inspection that is not only unnecessary, but is very similar to one that has been proven unconstitutional by a federal court in Ohio just this past October. The last thing our city needs is a lawsuit, and a case can be made that this ordinance violates the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Tim Townley, San Luis Obispo
This story was originally published March 8, 2016 at 7:38 PM with the headline "SLO rental inspections are a violation of rights."