Inspection fees will see a slight increase in the community of Lisbon and a new annual fee will be charged for rental properties.
Lisbon city administrator Brandon Siggins said the majority of inspection fees will remain the same, as Linn County is completing the inspections, but the city will charge an additional $10 if city employees have to get involved in the process to cover the time and work they spend on the project.
Siggins said that the city is also implementing an annual fee to help the city keep records of owners of rental buildings and when inspections were last completed on a property.
“What has happened in the past is a building gets registered by the city, and then the property gets purchased by someone else, and the city has no clue who the owners are nor their inspection cycle,” Siggins said.
Property inspections, especially for rental properties, should happen once every two years.
While the annual fee may start higher, property owners will only have to pay a flat fee for rental inspections now, replacing an hourly fee.
“Those inspections could take between one to three hours, with someone charging roughly $60 per hour,” Siggins said. “Now if an inspection takes a quarter of a day or more to complete, property owners are paying a flat rate.”
The county will bill the city for any inspections and the bill will be passed along to the property owner.
The annual fee that is paid goes to the city, not Linn County.
This will also help cut the need for a vacant/neglected building registry in the community, as city staff will be able to better track vacant buildings not being rented or needing to be addressed.
The discussion of vacant/neglected buildings continued from earlier this year when council member Mike Williams voiced concerns for buildings in downtown being used primarily for storage, as opposed to storefronts.
Williams said it would be beneficial for those properties to be inspected, especially for fire hazards, and correct any nuisances that are found.
Siggins said that the council can’t force anyone who owns a building how it would be used.
“We don’t want to lose Main Street because we’re not inspecting buildings that could have prevented a fire,” Siggins said.
Lisbon passed the third and final reading on the rental inspections ordinance at the same meeting the additional fees were proposed. There have been no comments or concerns with the new ordinance.