Hello? A fine to register? Thats not a resolution for property maintenance. You need a property maintenance Law for the city. ie...Grass cannot be over 10 inches high, no untaged vehicles or abandoned cars on property. I have rental property in other city where this law is in existence. The city has an inspector. He sees a violation...issues a ticket with specific amount of time to remedy situation or at least begin corrective action. Trust me the law is good for everyone. It keeps the city clean & property values up. No one wants to buy a home next to a slumlord! As a landlord, I factor this cost into my rentals/deposit. Plus it keeps me aware of things I might not be aware of. I have never has to pay a fine, because I have corrected every violation. If I need additional time to correct the city has always worked with me. Only those that want to NOT do upkeep on their properties complain. I tend to buy homes in my personal neighborhood. I let me my renters know that I live in the neighborhood & I dont want to see trash in their yard when I go buy, etc. With the economy has come hard times for previous homeowners who now have to rent. The law is made to be fair across the board...and our city is a desirable place to live & buy property. Having relocated back here, I chose not to purchase property here. Even thou property is dirt cheap here. The NO # 1 rule in real estate is location, location, location. If I purchase a property I would be putting monies into it (no matter what the condition) to make it mine. With no property maintenance laws in place here, what is someone moved next door who wanted to park his demolition derby car in front of his house?...and I wanted to sell mine? I use this as an example, because I witnessed this when I moved back here. One block of a street will have neat, clean homes that are well maintained. Next block (4 houses down), demolition derby car on a flatbed trailer sits in front of home...trash left in yard...dogs tied to porch with waste in front yard you can smell from the street. I seen this situation all over the county. It seems the older homeowners are the only ones that maintain a sense of pride in their homes....the rest seem to be too lazy to pick up a paper that's been laying in their driveway for months. And if they do have it in garbage cans...they let it sit by the curb...overflow...let animals get in...if garbage man drops something ...oh well...it stays there. Where I had my home & still have rental property....you remove your garbage can from the curb by night fall & place to the back of your home or at least out of site. If you happen to be on vacation or gone...your neighbor will move it back there for you. It keeps the nieghborhood clean & desirable for buyers. Due to the short time I plan on remaining in this area I choose to rent a home. I still landscape my yard,maintain cleanliness, & fix things that I can (or notify LL when needed). When I walk my small dog on a leash, I carry a bag(s) for his waste. And I use one to pick up trash people throw out on street on near sidewalk that no one else bothers to do. I asked a child if he threw down his juice container in his home when he was through with it...he said yes....Guess he learned that habit at home? So if your a LL put some gutters up, their meant to prevent water damage to your property...which will destroy it or cost you more in the long run. The law is not meant as a conspiracy to "get your money". Its meant to protect everyones investments.

Where's Pepperkern?

Will s/he not pronounce his, or her, or an GLTB, wisdom on us for this one?

It's red meat, but not for an inner or outer Shill for the City Government, etc

Rental properties that are not kept up as nice as the rest of the neighborhood are the bane of homeOWNWERS. We worked hard to be able to buy our own homes and continue to work hard to keep them nice. Homeowners don't appreciate landlords buying up homes for rental units then doing just the bare minimum maintenance---it affects our property values significantly. Hopefully this new registration will force landlords to take better care of their rental properties and property values throughout the neighborhoods will stabilize. It doesn't sound like Mr. Myers cares about neighborhoods or other people's property values at all.

Hey Mr. LANDLORD --- I'm tired of looking out my window and front door and seeing a house that burned over 2 years ago still standing with nothing done to it. I'm tired of looking at a house that needs condemned on my block when all the other houses are nice. I'm tired of drving into town and seeing the same houses deteriorating because of lack of care.

I keep my house looking nice and I expect others to do the same. It's not just for property value -- it's for pride!!!