City Inspections can be a good thing

Well on next Monday I have some contractors coming to the house to completely redo the exterior of the house. They are going to rip off all of the siding (both layers), knock of some would trim and then reside the house. They are also going to do aluminum fascia and sophists, along with wrapping all the trim around the windows and doors in aluminum. This work will also be completed on the garage. This is a departure from my original plan which was to repaint all of the ceramic tile and wood trim. The major reason for this change was because I didn’t want to have to repaint every five or so years. The next plan then was to reside and paint the trim. Again this would create too much maintenance. Painting the house even the trim is a huge job, and in the seven years I’ve lived in the house I have so much other work to do that I haven’t had the resources to do this and I don’t see the situation changing for a long time. So the solution was simply to pay more and go maintenance free.

What actually prompted this me to do this work now though was the wonderful city government. They have recently built up a program to discourage absentee landlords, bring up proper values, and in the process lower crime. This program was modeled off of those in other cities and basically it has city inspectors canvassing selected neighborhoods and writing up every single code violations they see. These include overgrown plants in the ally, missing housing numbers, broken windows, chipped or faded paint, and just about any other basic maintenance activity. I have received notices for this type of thing before but it was always minor, like cutting the bushes growing into the alley. It takes me a couple hours every other year to comply. This year however they got me for all the missing/chipped/faded paint on the garage and the house. Since I had already decided to do all of the siding, trim, sophists, and fascia I didn’t want to spend the money on paint just to get all of siding and trim work done a year later.

It’s funny the reaction most people give me. They are shocked that the city could do that. Then they get a little mad that the government would tell you what to do with you house. But when you really think about it this type of program – as long as it isn’t abused by officials – is good for everyone. Home owners while they are forced to spend money they may not want to in the short term still need to have the work done to their homes and as a bonus their neighbors have to clean up there homes too. So your house is better maintained (begrudgingly) and everyone’s property values increase. Since this program also covers rental units it means that people don’t have to settle for buildings that are falling apart. Landlords will have to keep up the maintenance and provide better rental units for people to live in. In fact many landlords that would just keep collecting rent and never work on the building until it is condemned are instead forced to get with the program or sell. Many actually sell and hopefully better owners come in. Also most residents gain the benefit of living in nicer, cleaner, and well maintained city.

The City of course is the big winner in all of this. By enforcing these codes they help their tax base increase by increasing home values, the program also brings in more revenue via permits, inspections, and civil ticket fees. It makes the city more desirable to live in as the houses are nicer looking and in better shape. The city also gains in other ways with the enforcement of codes, many times this enforcement leads to the reduction of crime in the city. This happens for a couple of reasons. First it can force people that are not will to keep up with the citations to leave the city for one reason or another. The second is what you may call the Giuliani effect; that is when you enforce lower level crimes people are less likely to commit larger or more violent crimes. At least this is the hope. Of course I’m just happy that everyone else in the neighborhood has now put a fresh coat of paint on their houses (at least the majority of people), cleaned up their yards, and fixed any hazards around their property, even if I do have to put up with the government telling what to do with my own house. Of course I can’t wait to see the house all fixed up, at least the outside!!