Council reviews rental-licensing and property-maintenance updates; considers stronger penalties for repeat noncompliant landlords

Council completed a detailed review of proposed updates to rental licensing and property-maintenance codes, focusing on enforcement mechanisms and the disruptive-conduct provisions that trigger eviction and license revocation.

Staff said the draft moves relevant language into rental-licensing chapters and clarified that the code official shall deny or revoke a residential rental license if an owner fails to abate violations, fails to evict occupants when disruptive-conduct provisions apply, or otherwise does not satisfy registration and management duties. Council members raised a recurring enforcement concern: cases where owners failed to file eviction paperwork correctly at the magistrate's office, which resulted in the court dismissing disruptive-conduct cases and required borough staff to restart enforcement. Council asked staff to confirm how the borough's rental-license revocation provisions and magistrate procedures interact and to ensure the ordinance language closes the enforcement loophole.

Members proposed adding a clear definition and an enforcement path for a "slumlord" designation that would aggregate repeated violations across an owner's portfolio and trigger stronger penalties (including license revocation). Staff said they would add a proposed definition and consider language to collect repeat-violation counts across properties; they also asked legal counsel to confirm the mechanics. The council did not vote but directed staff and legal to refine the draft and return it for advertisement and public hearing.