Fatal fire has areas considering safety

Inspections on rental properties supported, but the law is limiting

BY DAVID RESS AND MEREDITH BONNY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS

Jan 28, 2007

Few places in Virginia require rented homes and apartments be inspected to make sure they're safe.

But it's an idea that some are talking about after a fire in a rundown Petersburg neighborhood claimed the lives of three children.

Petersburg officials say they already had been thinking about joining the small group of cities that require inspections of rented houses and apartments -- a group that includes Hopewell and soon will include Colonial Heights. No other central Virginia municipality requires inspections.

"I'm surprised," said Barbara Garber, 77, a renter for 11 years before being burned out of her Chesterfield apartment Jan. 22. She was happy with her apartment but feels it makes sense to have building code experts regularly examine rented homes.

"They should have inspections. If I would go rent a home, naturally I would want it to be protected. It should be."

But the state law that allows localities to inspect rented houses and apartments limits their power to do so, under a compromise with real estate interests. For instance, cities may inspect only the rental dwellings in a predesignated area, instead of citywide. The law says inspections should be done once a year but that property owners should get a four-year exemption if an inspection finds no problems.

Petersburg City Manager B. David Canada said those rules mean a city has to decide how it wants to use the authority: either to prevent blight, which is the approach most building officials see as the point of the rental inspections, or to try to force repairs on decrepit properties. That's because state law forces cities to pick target neighborhoods for rental inspection.

In Hopewell, the rental-inspection program focuses on the City Point area and is intended to ensure a neighborhood with lots of rental housing doesn't become blighted, said Fire Chief John Tunstall, who oversees building code inspections there.

In Colonial Heights, George W. Schanzenbacher, planning and community development director, hopes to begin inspecting 20 units a week this winter. There, the aim is to prevent blight in the southern part of the city, where many older homes are rented.

But in Williamsburg, which has run a rental inspection program for four years, building official John Catlett says the program has a big focus on safety. One clear sign: his inspectors find a lot more working smoke detectors.

"Now, landlords are going in and checking before we come," said Catlett, Williamsburg's codes compliance administrator. "They're putting batteries in and testing. . . . They don't want a violation."

. . .

Like all building inspections, officials looking at rental units check for scores of items from the state building code, ranging from how securely handrails are installed to whether plaster on the walls is cracked to wiring, plumbing and the state of beams, columns and joists.

Like the standard inspections, officials can issue orders requiring repairs. If property owners refuse, inspectors can take them to court, which in Williamsburg could mean civil fines of up to $3,000. State law gives cities the option of filing misdemeanor charges, which can mean fines of up to $2,500 and up to 12 months in jail. Officials also have the power to order residents to leave an unsafe building.

Unlike most code enforcement, rental inspection programs such as Williamsburg's and Hopewell's allow inspectors to go inside a property without being invited.

Generally in other kinds of inspections, officials can issue citations based only on what they see from outside or if they are invited inside by a tenant or the property owner.

Responding to complaints is the basic approach the area's largest localities take.

Richmond has started street patrols by building inspectors looking for signs of blight, said city spokesman Linwood Norman. The city, which still has several open positions for inspectors, has started a patrol effort in Church Hill, Jackson Ward and along Hull Street, with plans to expand it citywide.

William D. Dupler, Chesterfield's director of building inspections, said officials have canvassed particular areas on occasion -- including the Jefferson Davis Highway corridor and apartment complexes in Ettrick -- but don't regularly inspect rental units.

Henrico Fire Lt. Gary Hutchison said tenants should feel free to ask to have their homes checked for compliance with fire safety standards. A tenants' invitation is enough to let fire or building officials in, he said.

. . .

In Petersburg, where nearly half of the city's residences are rented, residents are calling for tougher inspections after the Jan. 12 fire on Harrison Street that claimed three children of sisters Hope and Diamond Hazer: John, 16, Na'Tyah, 11, and Mark, 6.

Petersburg fire officials are still investigating that fire but say it appears the smoke detectors didn't work. Family members say the windows in the back bedroom, which was shared by two of the children who died in the fire, had been painted shut. The electricity had been cut off for nonpayment, and the family relied on space heaters to keep the old frame house warm.

Under the state building code, windows must open, smoke detectors must be functioning and space heaters may not be the sole source of heat.

The family's landlord has said he was unaware the power had been cut and that the house met building code standards with no violation notices issued.

City records show he corrected a 2002 electrical hazard violation and a 2001 order to fix the roof, in response to tenant complaints. Complaints of no heat and water in 1998 and 1996 were found to be the fault of the tenants at the time. A 1992 inspection found more than a dozen violations, some of which records show were fixed with the others not noted in inspection reports from the later complaints.

The city decided to take no action on a 2005 neighbors' complaint that a tenant was operating an illegal boarding house in violation of zoning rules rather than the building code.

Residents at a City Council meeting just days after the Harrison Street fire called for a crackdown on building code enforcement, and some have suggested a rental housing inspection program.

"I am very supportive of the idea," said council member Brian A. Moore, referring to rental inspections.

Council member Horace P. Webb said the aging stock of houses that are rented in Petersburg makes the idea worth considering.

But many localities, including Henrico County, feel rental housing is generally new enough and well-maintained, so an inspection program isn't necessary, Henrico building official Greg Revels said.

Others, including Chesterfield County Fire Marshall Robbie Dawson, said inspections are seen as a violation of privacy because "if we go in without your consent, it's an illegal search."

"We feel like we have a handle on these neighborhoods," said Norfolk Building Official Ralston McInnis.

But sometimes, inspectors find real shockers, said Williamsburg's Catlett, remembering one dark basement furnace room in particular.

A pass of a flashlight revealed a badly corroded temperature and pressure valve, the safety device that is supposed to flick open to let out pressure before it builds up enough to make a boiler explode.

"I swung my flashlight up," Catlett said. "Kept going and saw three bricks sitting on top, holding it down."

Contact staff writer David Ress at dress @timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6051.
Contact staff writer Meredith Bonny at mbonny @timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6452.