Rental info meeting draws crowd, answers questions

About two dozen people came out last Thursday (Jan. 18) to the town’s latest info session on its rental license and inspection program. One woman complained the program nearly made her spend $5,000 unnecessarily.

There are currently two versions of the rental program at play. One was approved by selectmen last year. The other is a warrant article to update the town housing standards ordinance. The programs are identical other than the statutes they fall under.

Thursday’s public information meeting was mainly about selectmen’s program. A public hearing on the warrant article versions will be Jan. 30. A second hearing will be held Feb. 6.

Deputy Town Manager Paul DegliAngeli led the public input meeting. He was flanked by Phil Remington, the newly promoted Conway Village fire chief, who replaced the retiring Steve Solomon, and Selectman Ryan Shepard. Chad McCarthy, the North Conway fire chief, and Center Conway Chief Glenn Merrill were also on hand as well as town Zoning Officer Nicholas DeVito. Selectman Mary Carey Seavey sat in the audience.

Valley Vision covered the meeting. The video can be seen on the town of Conway’s Facebook page.

DegliAngeli took questions from the audience as well as responding to emails at the 7 p.m. session.

Landlord Karen DiGregorio said when the program first came out, there was a requirement that smoke detectors had to be hardwired, and she got a $5,000 quote for that work. Later, the town walked back that requirement. “My brother (Conway School Board chair Mike DiGregorio) saved me before I paid for that, which I would have been very upset about,” said DiGregorio.

DegliAngeli said the program has been a “work in progress” but now he believes it “has arrived.”

DiGregorio also said the warrant article version says inspection fees are payable at the time of the inspection, when in fact they are due with the application.

DegliAngeli said that wording will be corrected.

He also said the town has gotten many questions about smoke detectors and egress. In regards to an emailed question, DegliAngeli said the state requires them in rentals in rooms where people sleep, whether it is a bedroom or not.

In regards to egress windows, he said when the window is open, it should create an opening of at least 3.3 square feet. If the window is ripped out, the opening should be at least 5 or 5.7 square feet, depending on the date of the applicable code.

Josh Brustin of Pinkham Real Estate asked about inspection fees. DegliAngeli told him the fee for a one- or two-family home is $375, of which the town keeps $125 and the fire departments, which do the inspections, get $250.

DegliAngeli added that some properties may need more than one inspection if inspectors find an issue.

Asked by Brustin how many inspections have required a follow-up, DegliAngeli replied, “By and large most of what we have done so far is by self-affidavit.” The deadline for owners of one- and two-unit rentals to use the self-affidavit option is Jan. 26.

Landlord Karen DiGregorio tells town and precinct officials at a public information meeting on Jan. 18 that the
Conway rental program nearly cost her $5,000 to hardwire her smoke detectors. The town made that
requirement and then walked it back. (Photo by Daymond Steer)

McCarthy noted that the fire department’s charge for inspecting either a single-family home or a 12-unit apartment building is the same, $250. He said when the program began, the precinct set the cost at $250 because he wasn’t sure how the inspection program would go. The fees will probably change in the future, he said.

Later on, Remington mentioned that if the fire department comes back to reinspect, “We’re trying to work with them, not punish them, it’s to get their facility up to where it needs to be.”

Remington said some issues inspectors have seen include sleeping areas that should not be used as bedrooms due to egress issues and carbon monoxide detectors that need to be replaced.

DegliAngeli told the Sun no landlord has been asked to stop renting their property because of the program. DegliAngeli said landlords are being given “reasonable” amounts of time to fix their issues.

Asked how the program will be enforced, DegliAngeli offered a timeline. He said landlords need to apply for a license by Jan. 26. By around Feb. 9, the town will start sending first notice letters to those who have not complied. If the landlord doesn’t respond to that, a second notice will go out. If the landlord still doesn’t respond, he or she will be fined. Fines can accumulate at $275 per day. Eventually, the town will go to court.

DegliAngeli said violators could start going to court as soon as April.

So resources won’t be stretched, DegliAngeli said due dates for applications may be staggered based on property ID numbers.

Resident AJ Hunter described himself as a renter and combat wounded veteran. He said that it seemed to him that this program would be a violation of his Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure.

“Our elected officials have decided upon themselves to violate the rights of those residents who are renters,” said Hunter.

“I encourage all renters to deny entry to any agent or representative government, municipal, state and federal seeking entry to their domicile without a proper warrant. I risked my life and lost good brothers to defend the Constitution of the United States, I will not allow the town to violate those rights,” he said.

But at several points through the meeting, DegliAngeli said the town doesn’t have the authority to inspect existing owner-occupied homes.

Asked if a landlord would get fined if the tenant refuses the inspection, DegliAngeli said the landlord would not be fined and the town would seek a warrant that the tenant would be forced to comply with.

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