Chester staff recommends repealing presale inspection ordinance to focus on rental registration and enforcement

Nikki Wegman, interim director of the Department of Community and Economic Development, told the Housing and Community Development Committee that staff recommends repealing Chester's presale inspection ordinance and refocusing inspection capacity on the city's rental registration and vacancy registry programs.

The recommendation, presented at a committee meeting, is intended to concentrate limited inspection resources on tenant-occupied units, nuisance abatement and follow-through on violations rather than triggering inspections for every real estate transaction. "This presentation is just gonna give a brief overview of the rental registration program and another ordinance that the Bureau has on the books called the presale program," Wegman said during her introduction.

Why it matters: Wegman told the committee there are an estimated 13,000 rental units in Chester (the census shows about 14,000 total housing units) and that rental registration is designed to promote safe housing and compliance with property maintenance codes. Under the current rules, rental units are licensed every three years and tenant-occupied units are registered annually; presale inspections are triggered by recorded property transactions.

Wegman described how the…