ADRIAN — A proposal to require exterior inspections of homes in the city before they can be sold generated strong public opposition at the May 20 Adrian City Commission meeting.

The commission chambers were packed, and commissioners heard about an hour’s worth of comments from 23 people, all of whom were against the proposal.

The proposed ordinance would require that, before residential properties can be sold, they must obtain a certificate from either a city inspector or a private inspector stating that “based on a limited visual inspection, the residential dwelling and premises meets minimum  standards in the International Property Maintenance Code.” 

Conditional approval could be granted for a sale if the seller agreed to set aside enough money to make any required repairs. The ordinance would apply to both owner-occupied and rental properties, but rentals would not have to be inspected if they are already in compliance with the city’s rental inspection program.

The stated goal of the proposal is to fight blight in the city by making sure problems with homes are taken care of at the time they are sold.

According to the city assessor’s office, there are about 300 home sales in the city each year.

During a pre-meeting study session, Commissioner Bob Behnke asked several questions. He asked for an estimate of how many homes would not pass an inspection upon sale; Commissioner Mary Roberts said that based on what she has heard from real estate agents, the number is probably about 15%. 

Behnke also asked how the city would respond to residents viewing it as a cash grab, to which city administrator Greg Elliott responded that the city cannot set fees for a service that are higher than the reasonable cost of providing the service.

Realtor Jeff Rising kicked off the public comment portion of the meeting. 

“I’m not opposed to fixing blight in the city,” he said. “I just don’t think this is going to do it.”

This was a common sentiment among people who spoke. In addition, some said that the ordinance would actually hurt blight elimination efforts. One real estate agent said that she’s happy when she sees somebody listing a rundown property for sale, because that means it can be purchased by somebody who will improve it.

Although many of the speakers at the May 20 meeting were real estate agents, many others were not. A number of residents said they themselves had purchased homes that needed work, and that they made the choice freely because they wanted to put the work into fixing the house up. With a point-of-sale inspection rule in place, they said, they would not have had that opportunity.

Others said that the rule would have a disproportionate negative impact on low-income and older homeowners, and that it would place an extra burden on people who need to sell the home of a deceased or incapacitated parent.

Another sentiment expressed by many was that the city needs to devote more energy to enforcing anti-blight ordinances that are already on the books, rather than enacting new ones.

Monday’s meeting was a first reading of the proposed ordinance, so no action was taken.

The soonest that the ordinance could appear on a city commission agenda for action is June 3. The commission meets on the first and third Monday of every month. Agendas for each meeting may be found at adriancity.com.

To read the proposed ordinance, click here.