By Adam Swift
City officials will begin looking at a plan to register all rental properties in Revere.
At Monday night’s city council meeting, Ward 4 Councillor Paul Argenzio introduced a motion asking that the mayor form a working group made up of members of the inspectional services department, the solicitor’s office, and any other relevant city departments to establish an ordinance requiring all rental property owners in Revere to register with the city. The motion came after the council approved special legislation that would give the city more oversight over rooming houses.
“This will establish a comprehensive list of all rental properties and institute an inspection of these properties to ensure safe living conditions,” said Argenzio.
Both Lynn and Boston have a similar ordinance that requires anyone renting any property in those cities to register them.
“This would be a substantial revenue stream, they would register, and then each subsequent year, they would pay a reduced re-registration fee,” said Argenzio.
Ward 2 Councillor Ira Novoselsky said he had some concerns that the costs of those registration fees would be placed back on the folks renting the properties. Argenzio noted that the fees he is suggesting would only be $40 to register and $15 for the annual re-registration.
“I know ISD (inspectional services) right now isn’t fully equipped with inspectors to do this, but that is why I suggested the working group,” said Argenzio.
In Boston and Lynn, Argenzio said there is a five-year inspectional rotation for each rental property.
“This gives the city some teeth to require everyone to register and set up an inspection for these properties to ensure that everybody has a safe living condition,” said Argenzio.
Argenzio said the plan would be a large undertaking, but that other cities have implemented similar plans.
“I think, as a group assembles and comes up with different questions and different problems that may arise, we can work through this,” he said. “This is going to take several months, this is not something that’s going to be happening quickly.”
Argenzio said any ordinance crafted by the working group would have to come back before the council for approval.
