Kennett's rental inspection program: How it ensures tenant safety and property compliance

Kennett Kiwnaians heard from Kennett Code Enforcement Officer and Inspector Chris Skelton at Wednesday's meeting.

Skelton spoke about the city/landlord/tenant agreements regarding rental property registration, inspections, and the program's positive results.

"Back in 1989 I started with the Kennett Fire Department," Skelton said. "After training, I became a Firefighter II in Missouri.

"I went to Arkansas in 1991 and was there about nine years," he continued. "I became a Firefighter III level there."

Skelton worked with his father for another 24 years until he started with code enforcement in 2024, he told the club.

"It was planned for me to do the rental inspections," said the front-line professional. "I really enjoy it.

"I like to meet the people," he continued. "The maintenance guys for the landlords ... they're all great. Everybody I've worked with so far has been excellent. Anything we want the maintenance guys to do to bring rentals up to code, they do it and do it quickly."

Skelton said the city adheres to the 2021 International Property Maintenance Code.

"The 2021 Residential Code," he said. "And the 2021 International Fire Code for our inspections."

And Skelton explained the city ordinance that gave birth to the inspection program.

"So what has to happen is the owners of rental properties have to have their properties registered (with the city) first," Skelton said. "They register with our department (Code Enforcement), we put the information in a database, and when a renter wants to rent that particular piece of property, we check the database to make sure the property was registered.

"The applicant will fill out a Rental Inspection Application," he continued. "They add where they're living, the inspection address they want to have inspected, their name, the number of occupants, and their phone number. The owner must sign the application, too. That way, we know the owners know what's going on with their properties."

That information is compared to Code Enforcement's database to determine if code violations exist, Skelton said.

"The property maintenance man might have violations against him for trash on the property or whatever," he said. "As long as they clear all that, tenants pay a $50 inspection fee.

"We set up a time to do the inspection," Skelton noted. "When we first started, only the tenant had to be there. But it's worked out better when we have the maintenance person and the owners themselves there. That way, if there's a violation that can be fixed so the property won't fail the first time, they can fix it right then. We've done that quite a bit, and it's worked out a whole lot better."

Once inspections are started, each room is inspected individually, Selton said.

'Each room has its own code," he said. "Kitchens are different than bathrooms.

"Bedrooms have to have smoke detectors," he added. "Living rooms have to have smoke detectors. Bathrooms have to have a heater and a window with a screen, a window that can open, or a mechanical vent. They have to have ventilation."

Kitchens must be ventilated as well, Skelton explained.

"The biggest thing is the windows (within all rental units) have to open," Skelton emphasized. "If you have four windows in a room, 45 percent of that window space has to open.

"So what we allow, as long as two open, we allow you time to work on the next two for the next inspection," the inspector said. "For the next renter."

Skelton said the most glaring violations are trash, exposed electrical wires, fewer than the required number of smoke detectors, and non-opening windows.

"We had one yesterday that had two smoke detectors," he said. "One of them was painted over.

"So obviously, it didn't work," he added. "And the other was non-functional. One of the bedrooms didn't have a smoke detector at all. And that was, basically, the fault of the maintenance man. Because he didn't go and check. So we had to fail him for that. But it's something that's an easy fix. There was a little more to that one. Trash on the outside, brushpiles, anything like that in the yards will cause the property to fail immediately."

Skelton said if the trash is removed while he is on site, the property would pass inspection.

"The maintenance guys are great," he said. "I tell them this or that needs to be fixed, and they have no problem with it.

"The owners are pretty good, too," he added. "Everybody's good."

Skelton said his department has averaged one inspection daily for the last month or so.

One Kiwanian asked if people could live in homes without utilities.

"Yes," Skelton said. "They can.

"If they have a generator, we can't do anything about it," he added. "That's a big thing right now. And no heat. It is against the code. But if they have power and water, and they can bring in water, we're not able to do anything about it."

Another Kiwanian asked if landlords were renting properties without utilities.

"Yes," Skelton replied. "Because we had some landlords that had not registered properties.

"And they went ahead and rented them," he added. "But they could not get utilities. I don't know if the tenants moved out or not."

A Kiwanian asked if landlords could maintain utilities in their names and rent properties "bills paid," perhaps avoiding inspections and renting homes to unsuspecting tenants that are not up to code.

"Is that to work around the inspections?" he asked. "I have a piece of trash (rental property), and I'm just going to pay the utilities (to avoid inspections and rent substandard housing)?"

"It won't be inspected, if that's what you're asking," Skelton replied. "If you want to be on the hook for utilities when tenants move out in the middle of the night, and the (delinquent, unpaid) rent, there's nothing we can do about that."

Skelton emphasized that inspections are good for all involved and that the program's results might benefit the community as a whole, but that his department, landlords, and tenants must work together to provide for the common good and to live among one another harmoniously.

"If the owners have not registered their properties and they're still renting them out, they cannot get utilities," Skelton said. "I don't know if the tenants know that ahead of time or not.

"They can live in a house without city utilities," he added. "They can always have a generator. They can have a candle for light."

And that is not ideal for the community.

"That's a bad situation," Skelton said. "Especially when it's five degrees outside.

"But there's nothing legally we can do at this point," he continued. "We're trying to work with everybody to make sure that everybody is safe."