Some More Thoughts about Kansas City’s New Rental Ordinance
Video Transcription:
Hey everybody, I’m Ben Fetzer here in Kansas City with Fresh Start Restoration. Wanting to do a quick video. It’s a nice cloudy day here in Kansas City. Starting to rain a little bit. Um, I have some. I wanted to just throw out there that a lot of people probably haven’t heard of or thought of much. Back in August, Kansas City, Missouri passed an ordinance. Uh, that, basically they put together a program where they are going to hire inspectors. To go around as part of the health department. And they’re going to go around. And actually, inspect rental properties when tenants complain of unsanitary conditions or unsafe living conditions.
So we actually put out an article back in August, I believe right after this ordinance passed. And if you want to see that article, there’s a little news clip that’s on our website mold Kansas City.com. You just go to videos. And you’ll be able to scroll through and actually watched the little news article that they did. But it’s a news video rather. So if you want to check that out, that’s fine. But I’ll just summarize here in this little quick video starting this month, which is October. They’re going to hire four inspectors to begin doing inspections. And these are random as well as….sorry, just seeing who was checking in on the video.
Inspections
It’s either a random inspection. Or it’s in response to a complaint that a tenant has an issue. Because of the property that they’re living in. Could be mold-related could be something else. But knowing rental properties the way that I do. A lot of them probably will have mold and that’ll be a big complaint. Um, and in that sense, I see it as a pretty positive ordinance. At least a landlords that have refused to correct leaks or properly remove mold. At least they’ll be held accountable. And, um, the, uh, tenants, we’ll have someone else helping them negotiate. Or, or communicate with the landlord and actually get some kind of a resolution. So usually that’s a sticky issue and there are some illegal things that happen as a result. But the ordinance I think will help in that way.
Not Enough Man Power?
There may be too many complaints about the 12 people that were hired in January for the entire city. Missouri is probably not going to be enough. I hope that these are legitimate complaints that do come in. There’s a lot of critics, realtors and property managers were against that ordinance. Because they felt like it was going to punish the good landlords. Or the good, the good a property management companies. Those that already follow the current laws and ordinances. I was just going to be something that tenants can use against them versus tenants. That have bad landlords and need help in that way. So some are definitely not for it. I can see both sides. I can see that a property manager may not, it may not be positive in the way that it affects them.
They’re already doing a good job. So hopefully that’s not the case. But nonetheless, it’s a new thing. It’s happening now. It’s going to actually come into full effect in January. And, if you are one of those standards that are living in an unsafe. A structure and you can’t get a landlord to respond. Or get maintenance out there to fix the situation. To deal with this situation and that is something that, at least hopefully will help you. It’s the health department of Kansas City, Missouri that you would want to contact.
And, anyway, it’s kind of interesting and I wanted to throw that info out and at least let everybody know about it. Remind everybody who’s maybe already heard of it. And if you want to go back to our website and check out more information, feel free. So a, have a great Thursday and we’ll talk to you soon. Ben Fetzer, Fresh Start Restoration. Website is moldkansascity.com