Every two years, the city code-enforcement office sends out four officers with the task of inspecting 4,600 addresses in 24 months. For those officers, city rentals become a pattern of violations, from ripped screens and faulty toilets to missing and broken smoke detectors and illegal extra tenants.
And all the while, fresh upperclassmen continue to line up outside Athens' landlords' officers to pay what they ask, and to live in what they provide.
The city code enforcement office inspected more than 2,300 addresses last year, with less than half passing inspection. In 2001, code's four officers visited 1,451 homes, and again, more than 70 percent racked up multiple code offenses.
The Post randomly selected 30 rental homes from among Athens' major landlords and discovered that each one has been investigated, cited, or found guilty of illegally housing extra tenants. Each one has repeatedly failed to install or repair smoke detectors and charge fire extinguishers. More than half of the investigated rentals were found to exceed 10 violations per inspection. Furthermore, code officer Brian Zoulek said he has inspected houses where 40 to 50 violations were found. These landlords' rentals make up 71 percent of the city.
These big business people in this town think violating code is another day at the office
said Dave Baer, attorney for the Center for Student Advocacy. They violate city code every damn day.
Baer, who worked with 524 student-tenant groups last year, said pointing fingers in court is a dead end. The city is toothless he said. Fines are sparse and students forget.
You see John Wharton (University Off-Campus Housing) walking down the street worth millions upon millions
Baer said. People should know he sits down with new tenants and tells them to make it look like three people live (in the house). It's criminal.
Wharton declined to comment.
Twenty-two of the 30 files The Post investigated cited homes without smoke detectors and fire extinguishers or without proper installation, batteries and certification. Missing or deactivated smoke detectors are so common -
and the student says
'I know my rights
' Pierson said. And you know what
we come back 24 hours later
and the fourth
fifth bed is gone.
Students hinder compliance even more when they rent homes solely to trash them during parties, Zoulek said.
Landlords rarely reach the court. Often, several months pass and multiple warnings are given before the city will even consider prosecuting. Even then, fines are not considered serious. A landlord with one extra tenant may collect an extra $3,000, and only face a $1,000 fine.
If it doesn't hurt
then what is the disincentive? Pierson said.
Landlord lapses
Pam Hines of Connie McClain Realty was found guilty of breaking zoning laws and fined $5,000 in April 2000 for leasing extra students beyond occupancy. She was fined $2,500 for doing the same thing in 1999. Hines, who rents 26 units, is the only landlord thus far to be found guilty in court.
In the years that she did that
