Export lowers fee, inspection requirements in landlord licensing ordinance

Export officials ended 2021 by tightening up the borough’s ordinances regarding rental properties, particularly instituting a $100 annual license that landlords must acquire along with mandatory inspections.

Initially proposed as a $200 annual fee in the 2022 budget, council ultimately settled on a version that cut the fee price in half and changed the inspection schedule from once every two years to once every four years.

Mayor Joe Zaccagnini proposed the ordinance as a way to address problem landlords, many of whom live outside the region.

Councilmen John Nagoda and Joe Ferri, who both own local rental properties, voted against the ordinance, which passed 5-2.

“Ultimately, we made a compromise, and with a compromise that means both sides are usually a little unhappy,” Councilwoman Melanie Litz said.

Ferri said he felt the new ordinance was positive in some ways, but ultimately goes a little too far.

“It’s a lot of work for the landlords, and I don’t really see it being effective in doing what they want it to do,” he said. “It was sold to us on the premise that it will help collecting earned income taxes.”

The ordinance does serve to codify a lot of rental regulations that did not exist previously in the borough, including a requirement that any property owner who lives more than 15 miles outside the borough must designate a local manager.

“This second form of the ordinance is much better because the inspections are fewer and farther between,” Ferri said. “So in that way, it’s a little less draconian.”

In earlier discussions about the ordinance, Nagoda said he felt it amounted to little more than a tax that would be passed on from landlords to tenants.

Export solicitor Wes Long said the advantage of the licensing structure is it allows the borough to place a lien on a property whose owner is violation the ordinance. Liens cannot be placed on unpaid fines.

The ordinance also requires landlords to draw up lease agreements which are to be copied to the borough.

“They want us to provide copies of those leases, and they have personal information on them,” Ferri said. “I feel like it’s onerous.”