Rental code seeks details on residents, floor plans

Proposal calls for payment
of annual license fees;
provides some exceptions

By dick metzgar
Staff Writer

Proposal calls for payment

of annual license fees;

provides some exceptions

By dick metzgar

Staff Writer

FREEHOLD — Borough officials are escalating their battle to curtail residential overcrowding in the town with a new ordinance designed to make apartment complex operators more responsible for knowing who is living in their units.

The most important stipulation in the new ordinance, which was introduced on March 10 and is expected to be adopted by the Borough Council at the end of the month, is that all owners of residential properties must obtain licenses before they can rent out their units.

The new regulations are being put in place mainly to crack down on absentee owners who allow overcrowding in residential rental units, Mayor Michael Wilson said.

The ordinance does not apply to owner-occupied rental complexes, the mayor said. It also does not apply to public housing authorities, not-for-profit housing corporations and rental property restricted to senior housing or housing for the developmentally disabled.

This will be the first time operators of apartment complexes have been required to obtain licenses before they are allowed to rent their units, Wilson said.

The annual license fees will be as follows:

• Year one: $500.

• Year two: $300, provided that in the past year the licensee has not been convicted of any violation of the ordinance or any other borough ordinance, statute or regulation concerning the subject rental property. In the event of any such conviction, the annual fee shall remain $500.

• Year three: $100, with the same penalty for non-compliance as for year two.

Wilson said the ordinance — which is an escalation of the borough’s effort to maintain quality of life standards in the county seat which have been launched in the past year — has been in the works for about a year.

"We have had countless meetings while hammering out this ordinance," Wilson said. "I think this is the hardest and most difficult new ordinance that I’ve been involved with during the years I’ve been mayor of the borough."

During the last year, borough officials have been levying fines against rental unit owners who have been found guilty of allowing overcrowding and other violations, which are related to the quality of life in the community.

The borough has hired a special code enforcement officer and has assigned an officer from the police department to deal with these quality of life issues.

"This new ordinance will enable us to keep a better handle on the people who are living in the borough," Wilson said.

Detailed information about inhabitants and the layouts of the rental units must be supplied on each license application for it to be approved.

Among these are:

• The application must include the name, age and gender of each and every tenant living in a unit, including children.

• For each unit, the owner must provide a floor plan of the unit, which must depict the number, dimensions and location of each room in the unit. No space shall be used for a sleeping place which has not been so designated as a sleeping area on the sketch provided by the owner and approved by the borough’s construction official.

• In the event that the tenancy changes during the year, the landlord, owner or managing agent shall, within 30 days of the change in the tenancy, provide an updated property registration statement for every unit in which a change in tenancy has occurred. This shall be in addition to the requirements for obtaining a certificate of occupancy for the change of tenancy. A change in tenancy shall mean the addition of any person not included in the annual statement, or deletion of any person on the annual statement.

"I think this will enable us to have a better handle on who’s who in the town," Wilson said. "Unfortunately, one problem will be that we can’t separate the good guys from the bad guys. At least at first, the good guys will be penalized too. But we have to do this to discourage the absentee owners who are breaking the law. However, in the end I think the ordinance will be good for those who do not violate the regulations.

"The regulations will actually protect those who do not break the law," the mayor continued. "For those who break the law, they will continue to be penalized. Their license fees will not be [lowered] until they stop violating the regulations."

Wilson said it will take time for the ordinance to show results.

"However, it is necessary because we now have a very diverse population in the borough," he said. "We have to keep our housing population under control because of health and safety reasons."