CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Charleston landlords finally spoke out last week against a proposed city ordinance that would require them to obtain annual licenses and open their apartments for periodic inspections.

And they did so at length and in numbers, at a meeting of City Council's Ordinance & Rules Committee.

Committee members regrouped and plan to tweak the draft landlord bill after listening to more comments at a public hearing Thursday, committee chairman Jack Harrison said. The hearing is scheduled at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers on the third floor of City Hall.

Despite the many objections raised a week ago, it appears City Council members will pass some form of landlord regulation bill. The main goal is to improve substandard rental properties. But city finance officials also hope the bill will help them collect past-due fees and taxes owed by a few landlords.

"The first part of the meeting will be a public hearing and the second part we'll work through the bill," Harrison said. "There could be some amendments."

More than a dozen amendments have been suggested, City Attorney Paul Ellis said Wednesday, and the list could grow even longer in the hours before the meeting. In fact, Ellis received so many suggestions that Harrison backed off his original plan to try to finish work on an amended bill Thursday.

Instead, rather than drafting language for each proposed amendment before the meeting, Ellis plans to simply list all of the suggestions. Committee members would consider each proposal. Ellis and his staff would draft formal amendments for only the proposals the committee favors.

The committee would have a third meeting, probably in a week or two, to revise the bill. After that, the bill will be sent to council's Finance Committee. City Council will have the final vote on the bill.

While folks who opposed the bill dominated the public comments a week ago, several people who support it, such as Howard Swint, plan to speak Thursday.

A commercial real estate broker by day, Swint has also owned residential apartments for the last 25 years, including a duplex in Morgantown, which has had a similar licensing and inspection program for several years.

"That experience in Morgantown gives me the background on how this bill could work," said Swint, who e-mailed notes of support to Mayor Danny Jones and council members earlier this week.

"What a great program it is," he said. "I was pleased to work with the inspectors. They were teachers, too. They would work with you on resolving any issues.

"I imagine in Morgantown [the program] was fought tooth and nail. But the housing stock now is far safer than what it was previously. In any new program, of course there will be issues. But the Morgantown experience shows it will be a great benefit to the community as a whole."

Steven Conifer, a lawyer with Legal Aid of West Virginia, was one of the few people who spoke in favor of the bill last week. "That's the main reason I spoke, because of the endless tirade of landlords saying things which in many cases weren't true," said Conifer, who plans to speak again Thursday.

Although he emphasized he was not speaking for Legal Aid, Conifer said he represents between 110 and 120 tenants. "I do pretty much all landlord-tenant law."

Of those clients, "at least half, maybe 80, have habitability problems." Clients typically fill out a form listing problems with their apartments, he said.

"The most common ones are toilet doesn't flush; sink is plugged; bare wires in walls/sockets; leaky roofs; mold; stove doesn't work; heat doesn't work, so sometimes they have to leave their oven door open for heat; and infestation -- rodents and roaches."

Some landlords complain they can't keep their apartments in good repair because tenants tear them up. Conifer conceded tenants might cause some cosmetic problems.

"But structural problems -- the tenant can't cause problems with the roof, the tenant doesn't cause problems with the heat. It's against the tenant's interest."

Tenants have little power to get things fixed, he said. "Essentially the only thing they can do is file a complaint in magistrate court. But the magistrate can't require a landlord to make the necessary repairs. He can only require a rent reduction.

"That's truly in theory. In my experience, I can't think of a single instance in which a magistrate issued a judgment in favor of a tenant.

"They can talk to a building inspector. But the landlords have little incentive to make repairs. They're usually so far underwater they let them fall farther into disrepair. Eventually the tenant is left homeless."

Among the 14 or more proposed amendments on the list committee Ellis was preparing Wednesday:

 

Changing the ordinance from one license per landlord to one license per rental unit.

 

 

Expanding the definition of "relatives" -- one of several classes of tenants exempted from the ordinance -- to include blood relatives like cousins, not just parent-child.

 

 

Requiring inspectors to have tenants sign an informed consent form before an inspection, which would include a right to refuse.

 

 

Adding a provision to the license revocation process to make sure landlords are given proper notice or "due process."

 

 

Adding a disclaimer that issuing a license does not assume the property is in compliance with city building and zoning codes.

 

Reach Jim Balow at ba...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5102.