NEWBERRY — The City of Newberry’s new ordinance authorizing the regulation of residential rental properties will go into effect Jan. 1, 2018.

To help landlords better understand the new ordinance and their rights as landlords, the City and the Newberry Housing Authority held an information meeting on Tuesday.

“The ordinance came about because of some problem properties. There were some properties that had excessive law enforcement presence, it was a disturbance to the neighborhood, the neighbors and frankly a chore to the police,” said Robert Lake, city attorney.

This new ordinance will apply to properties, not individual people, Lake said. The ordinance will address problem properties with the use of rental permits, when issued, authorizes a property owner to allow another occupancy of such rental unit.

The ordinance defines a rental unit as dwelling units or residential structures containing sleeping units, which are leased or rented from the owner or other person in control of such units, to any tenant, whether by day, week, month, year or any other term. The term does not include hotel, motel, dorm, medical or long term care facilities, bed and breakfast establishments and rental units owned and administered by the Newberry Housing Authority.

“This will only come into play if you have a property that has habitual law enforcement presence, and habitual citations issued. That is what this was designed to accomplish, to get a handle on that type of situation,” Lake said.

The ordinance says that no owner, whether a person, firm or corporation, shall allow occupancy for any rental unit unless the owner holds a current rental permit issued by the City of Newberry. Each rental permit shall expire on April 14 of the year following the year of issue.

If three or more offenses have occurred at any one rental unit within a 12 month period, the landlord will receive a notice from Ward Braswell, director of planning and development. At which point there will be a informal hearing, with Braswell, to discuss what happened.

“If you have extenuating circumstances, somehow three citations issued and neither you or your tenant had anything to do with it, maybe three public intoxication arrests happened outside your house, I am going to assume Ward is going to give you a break,” Lake said. “If you have five or six unlawful distribution of drugs occurring at that property, and it is not your tenant, but it is happening at your property, I doubt he would be very receptive, and will revoke your permit.”

For the purposes of this ordinance, an offense is defined as any citation for violation of any violation of local, state or federal statutes or ordinances. This will not include citations for unlawful accumulations of weeds, or unlawfully abandoned vehicles.

However, before three citations are issued, Chief Roy McClurkin has promised to send a notice to landlords after one citation has been issued.

If an owner’s permit has been revoked, the owner does have the right to appeal the decision before City Council. If the tenant is guilty of offenses resulting in a complaint, the owner may request a suspension of revocation proceedings by providing written evidence of the initiation of eviction proceedings against the culpable tenant. If the tenant is evicted, the property owner may request termination of the revocation proceedings.

Also during the meeting, Carrie Epting, with the Newberry Housing Authority, reviewed the S.C. Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, informing the landlords of their rights, and the rights of tenants.

Carrie Epting discusses the rights of landlords and their tenants.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_DSC_0048.jpgCarrie Epting discusses the rights of landlords and their tenants.

By Andrew Wigger

awigger@newberryobserver.com

Reach Andrew Wigger at 803-276-0625 ext. 1867 or on Twitter @ TheNBOnews.