HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-16-2017 - DunivantUNCIL MEETING: .2_/(0_/;Z FEB 13 2017
NO.:
From: Terre Dunivant
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2017 5:26 PM
To: E-mail Council Website <emailcouncil@slocity.org>
Subject: 2/16 rental inspection meeting: REPEAL RENTAL INSPECTION PROGRAM
Dear San Luis Obispo City Council,
I urge you to REPEAL the Rental Inspection Program, as a direct violation of the 4th Amendment to the United
States Constitution. The United States Supreme Court has written that "Physical entry of the home is the chief
evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed."
Further, rental inspections are intrusive. No one should be forced to admit government employees into their
homes for the purpose of a search, unless they are suspected of committing a crime and the authorities have
obtained a proper warrant based on evidence of a crime. This is insulting and heavy-handed, especially when
people who resist this obvious unconstitutional activity are subject to criminal charges — a result the US
Supreme Court has expressly disavowed under the Four Amendment.
Finally, in the likelihood that inspectors will find things that may require extensive and expensive remedies —
even in houses that are perfectly habitable — the Rental Inspection Program has the effect of decreasing
available rentals. Tenants are forced to move during renovations and rents are increased to pay for the
renovations and loss of rental income, and as a result of skewing and pressuring the rental market.
Thank you,
Terre Dunivant
Precedent:
October 1, 2015
Fourth Amendment secures property rights of landlords from unlawful searches and occupational
licensin regulations in Ohio and nationwide
4
lumbus, OH — The Southern District of Ohio today ruled that the City of Portsmouth's occupational
licensing requirements imposed upon landlords — — rental property inspections and licensing fees — — violates the
Fourth Amendment to the United State Constitution.
The 1851 Center for Constitutional Law's victory on behalf of Portsmouth rental property owners Ron Baker, Nancy
Ross, Thomas Howard, and Darren Oliver means that indiscriminate and warrantless government inspections of
rental properties are unconstitutional nationwide, and that unlawfully -extracted "rental inspection fees" must be
returned to the rental property owners who paid them.
These property owners had long rented their property in Portsmouth without license or inspections, and their
properties had never been the subject of complaint by tenants, neighbors, or others. However, the City threatened
to criminally prosecute and even imprison these landlords if they continued to rent their homes without first
submitting to an unconstitutional warrantless search of the entire interior and exterior of these homes.
Judge Susan Dlott, of the Western Division of the Southern District of Ohio, held as follows:
"[T]he Court finds that the Portsmouth [Rental Dwelling Code] violates the Fourth Amendment insofar as it
authorizes warrantless administrative inspections. It is undisputed that the [Rental Dwelling Code] affords no
warrant procedure or other mechanism for precompliance review ... the owners and/or tenants of rental
properties in Portsmouth are thus faced with the choice of consenting to the warrantless inspection or facing
criminal charges, a result the Supreme Court has expressly disavowed under the Fourth Amendment."
• "The inspections are also significantly intrusive. As the Supreme Court has noted, the 'physical entry of the home
is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed.'"
• "The search inspection sheet details eighty items to be inspected throughout the entirety of the rental property.
The Court thus concludes that the intrusion is significant."
• "Taking into account the above factors—the significant expectation of privacy, the substantial intrusion into the
home, and the inefficacy of the warrantless inspections on the proffered special need—the Court finds the
warrantless inspections are unreasonable."
• "Having determined that the Code is not saved by special needs or the closely regulated industry exceptions, the
Court concludes that the Code's failure to include a warrant provision violates the Fourth Amendment."
Both the United States and Ohio Supreme Court have invalidated warrantless inspections of rental property, and
repeatedly held that warrantless administrative inspections of business property are generally invalid, absent
exigent circumstances.
Nevertheless, Ohio cities had vigorously sought to collect licensing fees from area landlords, and the warrantless
searches served as the lynchpin to each of these goals. Ordinances such as Portsmouth's Rental Dwelling Code
established an absolute prohibition on renting out property within a community - - even though the landlord may
have long done so and even though his or her property may be in pristine condition - - without a government -
approved license that cannot be acquired without first paying a $100 annual fee per rental home and submitting to
an open-ended warrantless search of every area of the property, inside and out.
"The Federal Court's ruling yesterday is a victory for all property owners and tenants. Local government agents do
not have unlimited authority to force entry into Ohioans' homes or businesses. To the contrary'houses' are one of
the types of property specifically mentioned by the Fourth Amendment; and Ohioans have a moral and
constitutional right to exclude others, even government agents, from their property. Entry requires either a warrant
or an emergency, and neither is present with respect to these suspicion -less rental inspections," said Maurice
Thompson, Executive Director of the 1851 Center.
"Government inspections of one's home frequently results in arbitrary orders to make thousands of dollars worth of
untenable improvements to even the most well-maintained properties. These enactments were nothing more than a
set of back -door tactics to collect revenue on the backs of Ohio property owners, while attempting to chase 'the
wrong type of owners' out of town."
Read the Federal Court's Order:
http:Uwww, ohiocanstitutron. ora/wp-content/up loads/2D251091035-Order-on-MS
-� Media
October 4, 2015: Columbus Dispatch: Rental inspections ruled unconstitutional
October 2, 2015: WDTN-TV 2: Federal judge rules Ohio city's warrantless rental property inspections are
unconstitutional
October 1, 2015: Portsmouth Daily Times: The original Portsmouth licensing fee declared unconstitutional
http: //www.ohioconstitution.grgI2015110/01/federal-court-cities-renta 1-1 icensi ng -and -inspection -requirements-
unconstitutional/
Terre Dunivant
San Luis Obispo, California
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