The Hutchinson City Council decided to continue a controversial rental property inspection program for another year while waiving the fees charged to landlords and ordering a restructuring of the policies.
Council members on Tuesday heard from a handful of landlords, most of whom called the 2015 Rental Registration and Inspection program unfair.
The council voted unanimously to have the city’s Housing Commission study ways to improve the program, which was meant to protect renters. But the landlords said it was often used as a way for residents who don’t pay rent or were facing eviction to retaliate against property owners.
The original program required registering and interior inspections of rental properties – a policy that landlords argued violated the Fourth Amendment rights of their tenants against search and seizure. The state legislature upended the ordinance, along with others around the state, by passing a law preventing cities from conducting periodic inspections of rental housing without a warrant.
Members of the Housing Commission asked the council to continue the program and allow them to look for ways to improve the program and make it more equitable.
(Read more: News – The Hutchinson News)