Council considers raising fees for Cedar Rapids landlords

The city's Code Enforcement Division wants to license landlords, require an annual registration of rental units and add an agreement to new leases that can help get tenants evicted for using rental units to commit crimes.

Matt Widner, who heads up the division, said Tuesday that a variety of committees and public forums have raised the issues of landlord licensing, registration and a crime-free lease agreements over the last couple years.

However, Widner said what most upsets landlords about any changes in the city's rental practices is a proposal to charge landlords more in fees.

“'How much is it going to cost?' That's what's controversial,” he said.

Two landlords who spoke at Tuesday night's City Council meeting told the council that the city should not raise its fees.

Fees, in fact, may not go up as much as Widner has suggested in his goal to better cover his office's $549,000 annual costs with higher fees and office efficiencies so he depends less on property-tax revenue.

Mayor Ron Corbett and council member Don Karr noted that bad rental properties drive down the value of entire neighborhoods, including homes that are owner-occupied. So using property taxes to help better enforce the upkeep of rental properties is good for landlords and for owners who are not landlords, Corbett and Karr said.

Most on the council favored the proposal to add crime-free agreements to new leases, which Widner said should help landlords more easily evict tenants committing crimes from their rental units.

Regarding fees, Widner used the example of a four-plex apartment, and said an owner of such a building now pays $80 for the building and $20 per unit every five years for rental inspection services. One of the options for a proposed fee change would charge the owner an annual fee of $50 for the building and $10 per unit. Over five years, the current $160 in fees for the four-plex would cost the landlord $450 in fees.

Tenants likely will pay the higher fees in rents, council members noted, though Widner estimated it would mean less than $5 more a month per unit.

Fees now only pay 43 percent of the city Code Enforcement Division's costs. Widner says he'd like to cover 77 percent of his office's expenses with higher fees and better office efficiency.