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Inspection Services outlines tiering, estimates ~75 properties affected by new rental licensing rules
Summary
Inspection Services told the committee on May 13 that the city's new rental licensing ordinance (effective Jan. 1, 2027) uses a three-tier system; staff estimate about 75 properties (53 Tier 3 + 22 with license conditions) would be impacted under current tiering and said technical amendments and capacity planning are underway.
April Bogard, director of Inspection Services, presented the committee's first implementation report for the 2025 rental licensing ordinance on May 13, 2026.
Bogard said the program categorizes rental properties into three tiers to set inspection frequency and license fees: Tier 1 properties meet minimum code and are inspected roughly every eight years; Tier 2 properties are inspected about every five years; Tier 3 properties have documented issues affecting health and safety and are inspected annually. The tier is determined by a two-year lookback and scoring across 11 factors, including life-safety code violations, nuisance conditions, reinspections, administrative citations and timely payment of license fees.
Bogard said there are just over 23,000 rental licenses citywide. Under current scoring, staff estimate roughly 75 properties would be affected by the new requirement to bring certain licenses before council (about 53 properties currently classified as Tier 3 and 22 properties with license conditions). She cautioned that the tiering algorithm is operationally complex, does not always reflect a building's momentary condition, and is subject to multi-year work that could change which properties are impacted for the 2028 licensing cycle. Staff said they will hold a deeper council roundtable in June (rescheduled to June 10) and pursue a technical amendment to correct renewal-language issues that would leave some licenses incorrectly exempt from impact.
Councilmembers welcomed the report, flagged equity concerns where Tier 3 concentrations map to lower-income and more diverse neighborhoods, and asked staff to restore and update public-facing tools such as a "good cause" or problem-property list. Bogard said staff capacity is constrained and that implementation planning includes outreach and notification to affected property owners.
The committee asked the clerk to file the report and scheduled follow-up engagement at the June roundtable.
