General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: OMG I'm going to be thrown into the street! [View all]happyslug
(14,779 posts)Local government just refuses to crack down on them, and it is the local government that has the duty to provide such inspections and close down such housing.
The State Legislature has REFUSED to give magistrate the right to close down such housing, saying it is up to the Tenant NOT to rent such uninhabitable housing.
Now, there is a movement to crack down on such bad housing, but it includes fees for inspections and registration of rental units within Municipalities. This option is spreading but a lot of landlords oppose such licensing for most landlords are almost as poor as the people they are renting to. Being a landlord when it comes to low rental housing is NOT what the wealthy invest it, it ends up being someone not making much more money then the tenant who is renting a house, they obtain the rental units cheaply, often by inheritance, but once they own the rental unit such landlords rarely can sell it for no one wants it OR the value is so low that the closing costs exceeds the value of the rental unit.
Thus low income rental units are owned by very marginal landlords who often are one step away from abandoning the property they are renting out. You run up to much of a fee, the house will just be abandoned and the municipality will have to tear it down when the rental unit becomes to bad.