WC Iowa News

The Carroll, Iowa, City Council, at its Jan. 23 meeting, received an update on the status of its rental housing program from Code Compliance Officer Rick Peugh.

The program was started in April 2021, putting together a rule book for inspections based on the code. The inspections started two months later. 

“I go in pretty frequently," Peugh said. “But at a certain point it was just taking too long for them to correct some of [the problems]. I went through everything, and I said, 'Here, you need to fix all this stuff. I'll work with you on a time frame and stuff like that as long as we stay in constant contact.'" 

Carroll has 514 registered rental properties in the city, and he has inspected 279. About 72% are single-family homes, 10% are duplexes and 18% are apartment buildings. Peugh reported the majority of the time, when he finds some deficiencies or noncompliance factors, the owners and landlords are quick to fix them without complaint. But there are problems. 

Twenty-three of the 279 inspected properties are yet to comply with their deficiencies, and some of this is because of difficulties getting parts or workers or a scheduled repair in the near future. 

Most of the problems that come up in these inspections are minor, such as smoke detectors or carbon monoxide detectors, bad outlets, things that are easily fixed within the 30-day allotment.

The council also questioned some of the specific apartment complexes like Fairview Village, which had each unit inspected. Fairview Village has one building that has passed, but the other buildings are still being worked on.