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Addison staff report inspections, compliance plans and near‑target cost recovery in first year of rental registration program
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Summary
Town staff told the council the rental and lodging registration program registered and inspected hundreds of properties in its first year, found common safety and maintenance violations, issued few citations while working with properties on compliance plans, and recovered about 85% of the program's projected costs.
Ray Mendez, assistant director of Neighborhood Services, gave the council a first‑year recap of Addison’s rental and lodging registration program adopted Nov. 12, 2024, saying it was intended to “promote healthy and safe conditions for all rental properties” including single‑family rentals, multifamily complexes and hotels.
Mendez reported staff registered and inspected 76 single‑family properties and inspected 24 of 24 multifamily complexes (5% of units at each complex under the ordinance), and inspected 22 hotel/motel properties. He listed the most common deficiencies—missing or nonfunctional smoke detectors, minor electrical problems, exterior protective coating needs, landscaping and handrail issues—and said nearly all properties that failed initial inspections submitted compliance plans and have been working toward corrections.
The presentation said staff issued only a handful of citations during the first year, primarily for failure to pay registration fees, and that most safety‑critical violations were corrected following reinspections. “We did not issue any [citations] on any single family residences,” Mendez said, and added that many owners required extended compliance schedules because of unanticipated repair costs.
On finances, Mendez told the council the program projected $450,120 in cost recovery and collected $382,525, about 85% of the projection. He and other staff members said the shortfall was largely due to a lower‑than‑expected number of single‑family rental registrations in a town with an estimated 2,800 single‑family homes.
Council members pressed staff on outreach and enforcement. Mendez described outreach tools the town will use for the second registration year—utility bill inserts, direct mailers, and coordination with HOAs—and explained workflow changes to speed inspections, including assigning complexes to individual officers and upgrading the inspection workflow to allow notices to be issued from the field.
Omar Randall, neighborhood services manager, said the program’s new intergov workflow and planned system enhancements are already smoothing operations. “On the second year, with the enhancements that we made to our intergov page, I think it's gone a whole lot smoother,” he said.
The council did not take regulatory action at the meeting; staff said they will continue outreach, enforcement via notices and citations when necessary, and return with program metrics and potential scoring refinements in subsequent reports.
