In 2007, the city of Pittsburgh passed an ordinance requiring landlords to pay a fee and submit contact information for themselves or their property managers. Everything old is new again, and the Peduto administration has revived the effort.
The thinking behind the original $12-per-unit fee was to make sure city officials knew who was responsible for apartments and how to reach them during emergencies. But the city’s first attempt at landlord registration was challenged in court, then never enforced. It expired after 2011 because of the law’s sunset provision.
The second incarnation of the program resolves some of the flaws in the first attempt, but the new proposal is still problematic.
The biggest problem is the fee. It’s too high, at $65, and it would require annual renewal. That won’t break the bank of a person who owns a handful of apartments, but if there is no cap, a landlord with 500 units would have to pay $32,500 a year, every year.
The city’s explanation for setting the fee at $65 doesn’t add up. The Bureau of Building Inspection estimates that the clerical work involved in registering landlords and issuing and mailing the licenses would cost about $23. It attributes the remaining charge of $42 to inspection costs, presumably tracking down scofflaws and going after them.
That forces all landlords to share the cost of pursuing offenders, when it is the miscreants themselves who should bear the costs through fines.
The city might find more cooperation if it requires, by ordinance, that landlords supply the contact information without having to pay a fee. That won’t erase the city’s cost in going after the people who don’t comply, but it won’t put the burden on law-abiding landlords either.
Other cities do charge for rental registration, but Pittsburgh must make a better case for it than simply following in their footsteps to deliver more dollars — $1.6 million next year — to the general fund.
There may be a persuasive argument for landlords to be charged a $65 registration fee, but the city hasn’t made it yet.
First Published: November 20, 2014, 5:00 a.m.
