Updated: Waukesha Alderman Wants Rental Homes Inspected Yearly

Editor’s Note: Alderman Vance Skinner clarified Tuesday afternoon that his referral has to due with overall maintenance issues based on the “sheer number of requests or complaints” he frequently receives from district residents and from those outside the district.

“That is the most significant part,” Skinner said.

He also said in an e-mail that he is proposing that the rental units be inspected every two years. The discussion during Monday night’s was in reference to inspections being completed on an annual basis.

Skinner also clarified that he does work and meet with Carroll University staff about the neighborhood.

Earlier: Citing frustrations with the perceived number of students living in a single residence off campus and code violations among absentee property owners, Alderman Vance Skinner went before the Ordinance & License Committee Monday night to ask the committee to begin a residential rental certification program that would allow the properties to be inspected yearly.

“I think the discussion is long overdue, and I think reviewing the code is long overdue,” Skinner said.

By having a residential rental certification program, the properties would receive an overall inspection each year to ensure it is up to code. The city would be looking for safety concerns, among other things, Skinner said.

Skinner, who said he did not want to create more “bureaucracy,” suggested the annual inspection be paid for through fees after other aldermen and Assistant City Attorney Miles Eastman brought up concerns about adding the workload to the city’s already shrinking list of staff members.

“I think if we do this right, the program will pay for itself,” Skinner said. “We have to do something instead of nothing.”

While the aldermen all agreed there are code issues with private properties that they all hear about from area constituents, the creation of a rental certification program was put on hold Monday night.

But that doesn’t mean the issue is going away. The aldermen agreed to hear from a presentation from a person who completed work on a similar rental certification program that started in Milwaukee after downtown Waukesha resident Vicky Hekkers requested they do so.

“We can do a program that is budget neutral,” Hekkers said during the meeting. “We know we can.”

But even if the city were to develop a rental certification program, that doesn’t necessarily keep more than three unrelated people from living together, cautioned the assistant city attorney.

“We would need clear, satisfactory and convincing evidence” to enforce any code violations, Eastman said.

“When you see nine cars in a drive with a two or three bedroom house, it speaks for itself,” Skinner had said earlier in the meeting.

Skinner had brought the issue forward after he has received numerous complaints from area residents with problems with rental properties throughout his district, which includes many Carroll University students. Despite having students adhere to a Code of Conduct, Skinner said there is not much the university can do.

“Carroll University really has a challenge itself with dealing with properties that they don’t own,” Skinner said.

The city’s ordinances require that no more than three unrelated people live together in a residence.

“They are beyond capacity than what is acceptable,” Skinner said.

Alderman Terry Thieme had suggested the issue of students living off campus be taken up with Carroll University staff.

“They want to be a good neighbor, not a disruptive neighbor,” Thieme said.

No officials from Carroll University were at the meeting Monday night to give comment or to weigh in on the issue.