Politics & Government

Lakewood Unveils New 'Landlord Manual'

Document aimed at providing property owners with guidelines, resources in hopes of keeping up the city's aging housing stock.

Mayor Michael Summers began his work on cleaning up the rental properties more than 18 months ago when he was still the Ward 3 councilman.

On Monday, Summers unveiled his “Landlord Manual” to Lakewood City Council, just hours after the 57-page document was posted on the city’s website.

Summers has said working to improve the city’s housing stock is a . The Landlord Manual — meant as a guidebook for those who lease property — is one portion of the mayor’s plan.

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He also shared with council information about the GIS software upgrade set for May, which officials say will improve the city’s efficiency completing building inspections. There are also plans in the works to change the rules on housing license requirements, and registration of vacant properties.

The document — posted on the city’s website — outlines several guidelines for property owners.

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Among the topics covered in the manual are guidelines for best practices and application processes — as well as obligations and rights under fair housing laws; tools to manage properties; and available resources.

“We’ve got a very good document here,” he said. “’It needs work. We’ll make it better as we go along. This is the first step of implementing it.”

Hard copies will not be printed. Instead, Summers said the city will save money by only electronically sharing the manual. The document is expected to be revised after input from landlords in the city.

“We want to get out to every landlord,” he said. “More importantly, we want them to understand this and use it as a guideline.”

Jeff Ashby, the city’s assistant director of safety in the Division of Building and Housing, called the manual “a key element” of the city’s housing initiative.

He said the manual will “enable the city to identify a clear standard and then hold landlords accountable to those standards.”

How the city will hold landlords accountable hasn’t been sorted out yet.

“We sense we have a lot of landlords because they are landlords by default, or they have inherited property,” Summers said. “In this renters’ market, landlords often find themselves less successful than they have in the past.”

“In the end we want them to be great, but we also want them to be accountable,” he added. “The ultimate goal is to have great landlords.” 

Noting that 52 percent of the properties in Lakewood are rentals, Ward 1 councilman David Anderson said he supports the administration’s effort to clean up the city’s rental properties.

“This is a big issue,” he said. “I applaud the effort on this. We not only want world-class landlords, but world-class tenants as well.”

 


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