Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Housing Enforcement Outliers

Inspection Services Department located in historic Amherst Town Hall

The once controversial Amherst Rental Registration Bylaw -- one of the most important pieces of local legislation passed in a generation -- is now just over 1.5 years old.

After achieving 100% compliance of nearly 1,300 properties before the end of its rookie year, the next step of course is to keep them in compliance.

That's where the Inspection Services Department come in, aka the enforcer.

Interestingly the first half of 2014 compared to the first half of 2015 the number of complaints is exactly the same @ 164.  But in 2014 those 164 complaints were lodged against a total of 151 different properties and in 2015 the 164 complaints were lodged against a total of only 81 properties. 

Same number of complaints involving far fewer properties

Two of the more serious enforcement actions involved illegal basement dwelling units occurred in 2015. Fortunately both had a happy ending, although one landlord ended up paying $500 in court fines.

 149 Farmington Road




816 North Pleasant Street 

 

 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

An enforcer is a sign of failure in a community, not success. It is a sign of conflict, a lack of consensus and the attempts of one group in a community to take control of the decisions or possessions of another. Exactly what this law is designed to do for the looser local double standard NIMBY types.