A program requiring rental property owners to register each year with the village will go into effect next year in Brookfield. Exterior, common area and in-unit inspections will not take place as part of the program.
Trustees on Monday, Dec. 8, unanimously approved the least stringent of three proposed versions of the program, which will require landlords to annually register each of their rental properties with Brookfield by March 1. They will be charged a $50 fee per property that will “offset direct administrative costs for maintaining records, processing renewals and performing follow-up communication,” according to a memo from the meeting.
The issue has been the subject of controversy and discussion online and has consistently drawn negative public comments, mostly from landlords, who condemned the invasive nature of random, in-unit inspections that were originally proposed as part of the program.
The first version that staff brought to the board in October required such inspections, as well as those of rental exteriors and common areas, to be completed each year. In November, Community Development Director Libby Popovic brought forth three new versions.
Under the most rigorous of the three, an inspection of a random living unit in each rental property would have been required every three years while exterior and common area inspections would have taken place each year.
A middle-ground proposal would have done away with in-unit inspections and made exterior and common area inspections triennial instead of annual.
The least strict program, which trustees approved Monday, calls only for annual registration and did away with inspections entirely. The village will still be able to complete in-unit inspections in response to tenant complaints as it already does now, Popovic said.
Several public commenters, including some who have spoken at previous discussions of the program, criticized the program Monday night, with the majority of commenters decrying what they called an expansion of the local government’s power to regularly enter the homes of rental tenants. Some commenters expressed understanding for the village’s need to create a registry to have an updated list of who owns which rental properties.
In the past, public commenters have pointed to a lack of data to justify a registration program. At a Nov. 24 discussion, Popovic shared her department’s findings, which included processing more than 1,000 “code enforcement and property maintenance matters,” of which 315 went to adjudication.
When the meeting Monday proceeded to the point of board action, no trustee made a motion to put either the strictest or the middle-ground version of the program to a vote.
Before trustees approved the registration-only program, Trustee Kyle Whitehead said he wanted Brookfield to further educate renters.
“In past discussions of this, we’ve talked about, is there potential to do some community education around tenants’ rights and making sure that tenants are aware of the resources they have,” he said. “I understand it’s also part of the materials they receive from their landlords, but I do hope that’s something we and staff can stay on top of.”
Trustee Kit Ketchmark, who is the board’s liaison to the economic development commission, which discussed a possible program before the village board, expressed hesitancy around the registry’s implementation.
“It’s not clear how this would work. We heard some comments tonight as it relates to this. How do we reach out to property owners to get them to register?” he said. “The idea of using the water billing data has come up several times … Short of this, would compliance simply be voluntary? If there isn’t compliance, will staff be tasked with spending the resources and hunting down the property owners’ info, which is what we are trying to avoid in having the registration?”
Ketchmark initially passed his vote when the roll was called before voting ‘aye’ in line with the other five trustees.
Trustee Julie Narimatsu said she empathized with public commenters as a landlord herself.
“I understand the burdens that this kind of policy could have on you all. I also want to recognize that a lot of people aren’t here to talk about their issues, whether they’re tenants or landlords, who might think this is a good idea,” she said. “I also don’t think that responsible governance needs to wait for a public health or safety crisis to take action. I think the village needs as much data as it can get in order to manage successfully and effectively.”
After trustees approved the ordinance establishing the program, Village President Michael Garvey thanked members of the public for sharing their perspectives.
“There’s nothing that we’ve ever done that is completely written in stone that never changes or can’t be revisited. We like to reevaluate our policies as we go forward with input from staff and the public. Thank you for everybody that shared their comments and their input and thank you to all the responsible housing providers that we have in town,” he said. “I think you understand that we may have some [landlords] that are not as responsible, but I think the board’s trying to make the most informed decision they can, and we’ll look at it going forward.”
