Landlords could face tougher penalties when their tenants commit repeated public nuisance violations, according to a proposal the City Council will read for the first time Monday.
Councilor Garry Krause has spearheaded this collaborative proposal between landlords and the city's police, fire and building departments since spring 2007 to rectify the often tense relationship between tenants and nearby homeowners. Krause said the proposal is "three opportunities for improvement."
If a tenant conducts "disorderly behavior," the landlords will be notified to take action to prevent further violations, according to the proposal.
With a second offense in a year, the landlord will receive another notice and will have to report the corrective action they took to "prevent further disorderly behavior."
After a third offense in a year, the city will issue a notice and could make a decision to revoke, suspend or reject an application to renew the rental license within 15 days of the notice.
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"It puts a tool in the hand of the city," Krause said. "There are a number of landlords that would like to deal with this problem. It makes the landlord and tenants aware about what is unacceptable behavior."
Council members probably will put the proposal in their Monday agenda today, and they could vote on it as soon as Sept. 29.
"It would quell some of the neighborhood disobedience we are seeing in Duluth, with loud parties, garbage or criminal activity," Councilor Todd Fedora said. "There are certainly pockets of neighborhoods in Duluth that have quality-of-life issues, and this ordinance would deal with that."
The proposal will use the existing definitions of disorderly conduct, such as parties or loud music that disrupt the peace of a neighborhood; buying, selling or using drugs; illegal gambling or drinking; prostitution; and activities that cause excessive pedestrian or vehicle traffic.
"This will address absentee landlords," Fedora said. "If the landlord doesn't take corrective action to quell some of that activity, they could end up losing their rental license. The hope is that it is punitive enough action so they are more involved in their properties."
The proposal was informally discussed in April as an alternative to the now-repealed 300-foot ordinance, which prohibited new rentals within 300 feet of existing rentals.
"It is more fitting because it deals with the behavior in properties," Fedora said. "The
300-foot ordinance impacted folks that weren't involved in the problem."
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Krause and Fedora said the new ordinance would deal directly with repeat violators across the city, not only in college neighborhoods.
