Crackdown readied on negligent landlords

'A serious roach problem' gets attention of city officials

By Sarah Karush ASSOCIATED PRESS | Sunday, July 6, 2008

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James Weaver points out the buckets he has stacked in his living room to catch the rain that comes in through his crumbling ceiling. In the bathroom, he gives the toilet a little push and it moves. Then he notices he has to empty the cat's dish — of vermin.

"I told you there was a serious roach problem," said Mr. Weaver, 53.

D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, a Democrat, used the dilapidated building where Mr. Weaver lives with his son as a vivid backdrop recently to announce plans to step up housing-code enforcement throughout the city. Officials plan to start a program of regular inspections of multifamily rental properties — an established practice in other cities, but never done before in the nation's capital.

The initiative is the latest strike in the city's crackdown on negligent landlords. It follows a lawsuit that the city has pending against 20 property owners for failing to address multiple violations after repeated warnings.

The lawsuit should result in court orders for landlords to fix their properties, interim D.C. Attorney General Peter J. Nickles said. If the landlords don't comply with the orders, they could be found in contempt and jailed, he said.

The suit also aims to put 13 of the properties in receivership, including the building where Mr. Weaver lives on Gainesville Street Southeast. Receivership would ensure the rent collected is used for repairs.

Linda K. Argo, director of the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, said the city was reviewing the policies of New York, Los Angeles and other cities to establish a program of regular inspections of the District's roughly 4,000 multifamily residential buildings. The department hopes to start a pilot project in the fall to gauge how many more inspectors the city will need to hire, she said.

Previously, the city only conducted property inspections in response to complaints. But many tenants don't bother filing complaints or are afraid to, Mrs. Argo said. For example, the Gainesville Street property only came to the city's attention in 2006, but Mrs. Argo said she thinks the violations date back much further. Inspectors have documented more than 125 code violations at the three-story, 13-unit building over the past two years.

Sharlon L. Williams, who owns the building with his brother Robert and lives in it, said he plans to get a loan to pay for repairs. He said tenants were partly to blame for the conditions because many of them don't pay their rent.

As for the mayor's visit, he said: "I believe the mayor was right with what he's saying, but the city has to help me."

Mr. Weaver, whose two-bedroom unit costs $500 a month, said he knew there were problems with the building before he moved in. But he said he didn't have much choice because he was being evicted from another apartment and his credit was bad.

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