Proposed Draft Rental Inspection Program for Wheeling Gets Tossed

After more than an hour's worth of lively discussions in a room full of local landlords Wednesday night, the Public Safety Committee of Wheeling City Council cast a 2-1 vote to toss a draft set of requirements for a proposed Rental Inspection Program and start over from scratch.

Councilman Dave Palmer said "grave concern" remained concerning the plan, and that he has heard from both landlords and other Wheeling residents about their issues with the proposed program. He moved to toss the proposal.

"They're fearful of this document because of the unknowns," he said.

Councilwoman Rosemary Ketchum seconded the motion, leading to the three-member committee to pass the motion in a 2-1 vote with Councilman Ben Seidler, committee chairman, dissenting.

Landlords at Wednesday's meeting commended Seidler for presenting a forum that allowed everyone to freely speak. Some of them liked the idea of cracking down on slumlords who neglect their properties, but all of them firmly opposed the proposal as presented.

Seidler, who has championed efforts to clean up Wheeling's neighborhoods since taking office last summer, has pushed efforts to come up with a Rental Inspection Program that pressured negligent landlords without further burdening good landlords.

"This is obviously a touchy subject," Seidler said. "It's got a lot of pieces to it, and our goal is to find a way to balance out a way to make our rental properties safe without being a burden."

The proposal required rental property owners to register with the city. It created a self-inspection program that included a compliance checklist that would be kept by landlords, their tenants and the city. If problems with any property would need to be addressed, the property owner would be required to fix the problem in a timely manner.

While the draft proposal was a work in progress, many questioned the measure and expressed concerns about its repercussions and potential financial burdens on all landlords. Rental property owners said, oftentimes, bad tenants are the ones who destroy properties, and many viewed this program as something disgruntled tenants could use against them.

Bill Valput of Woodsdale owns nearly 300 properties in the Ohio Valley, including about 50 in Wheeling. He said mechanisms are already in place to address many of these issues, which can be and often are brought to small claims court.

"I'm not sure there is a need for this program," Valput said. "If (tenants) do call the city, it's usually as a retaliatory action to us filing an eviction motion."

Chuck Wood of Main Street said his investment company owns about 85 rental units in North Wheeling.

"I really appreciate the idea that we have to provide safe and healthy housing to the people in this town to rent," he said. "But I think this is overreaching in its approach to doing it. It adds to the paperwork, it adds to the cost and it adds to the time of the inspections."

Many landlords who work with Housing and Urban Development rental programs already are inspected and want to do the right thing, rental property owner Lambert T. Jones II said.

Valput noted, "It adds to the anti-development sentiment in Wheeling."

Officials are expected to go back to the drawing board to see if another proposal can be developed that can address poorly managed rental properties without harming those who take pride in their business.