Youngstown Launches Rental Property Registration Program

On May 26th, 2010, the City of Youngstown launched its new Rental Property Registration program. As of June 1st, 2010, all landlords will be required to register their rental properties annually. This program was launched to work toward several objectives that will increase the quality of life in the city.

The registration program provides the city with the ability to account for all of the rental properties within its boundaries. Up until this point, no complete list of rental properties existed, making data collection, service provision, and inspection difficult tasks to accomplish. With information about every rental property at hand, the city will be able to better serve the needs of both renters and property owners.

The program also helps the city to ensure that residents have a living environment that is both safe and healthy by providing mandatory annual inspections of all rental properties. Through this measure, the program will discourage irresponsible and neglectful property owners and provide an effective structure to hold them accountable to both the city and the community at large. Landlords with properties that fail to meet minimum quality of life standards will be fined and forced to undergo additional inspections until their property is up to code. This measure also protects the investment of responsible property owners by reducing blight in the city.

The Rental Property Registration Program will provide the city with a strong tool for data collection and enforcement. It will ultimately help to improve the quality of life for residents and provide a more stable business environment for property owners. With the goal of benefiting city residents and responsible property owners, the program seeks to educate the public and start a dialogue about how to best reduce the impact of irresponsible landlords.

Coupled with a variety of additional tools and strategies, registering landlords will help the city to better provide a fair, friendly and attractive rental environment for both renters and property owners alike.

For complete information, the press release, and a copy of the Rental Property Registration form, please visit the City of Youngstown's official Rental Property Registration Page.