Due to recent events, the enforcement of codes on rooming houses has become a growing concern among students and city officials.
“Three years ago there was a fire on 9th Avenue, and there were bars on the windows. Someone got trapped inside,” said Andy Baumann, a code enforcement supervisor.
“As a result of that we sent our city inspectors up and down every street on campus to look and make sure every house had an access to the outside from every room,” Baumann said.
This is called egress – put simply, it means a way in and out of a building, he said. This has become a very highly stressed issue in the code of inspections for rooming houses.
“The city makes a big deal out of egress, with good reason,” said Brian Grim, owner of University Manors Unlimited. “There are very few houses on campus that don’t meet the correct egress codes.”
A rooming house is defined as six or more people living in a house and sharing common areas such as a kitchen and bathrooms. The tenants can have individual leases with the landlord, Grim said.
The city has specific guidelines under the Columbus City Housing Code which rooming, fraternity and sorority houses must abide by to have a rooming house license.
But it is up to the landlord to first pay a fee to register the house as a rooming house before the city comes out and inspects the house, Baumann said.
“Once the house complies with the codes and passes the inspection it is given the OK to be rented out and then the city inspects the house once a year to renew their rooming house license,” Grim said.
“The types of things the yearly inspection looks for are general maintenance such as heating and plumbing working efficiently, windows, fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, safe wiring for outlets and that there is no sign of carbon monoxide,” Baumann said. “Extension cords across the floor are a big no, no.”
If there are problems, they are cited, and the landlord is given a certain amount of time to fix them. If the problem is not fixed in the given time period, and they are emergency items, the landlord can be taken to court, Baumann said.
“If there are emergency items such as no smoke detectors, then the landlord is given 48 hours to get them up and working, for other non-emergency items they are given 30 days to be fixed,” he said.
The code for rooming houses is upgraded yearly, and it is up to the landlords to keep their buildings up to code, Grim said.
“Now it is required to have a smoke detector and fire extinguisher outside of each sleeping space. But I go the extra steps and if my tenants want carbon monoxide detectors I put those in too,” Grim said. “I want people to feel safe in my places, I do everything I can.”
The code has somewhat evolved over time. A lot of things have been grandfathered into the system to account for the older homes because they cannot be made the same way a new house is made.
Many of them have basements and attics that have been updated to be safe as living spaces. One thing is the wiring in the older houses is much harder to do than newer buildings, so the city allows them to have smoke detectors that run on batteries instead of wiring them into the walls, Grim said.
However, like every system there is always a way to cheat. There are ways landlords can get out of registering rooming house contracts, Baumann said.
“The problem is that a lot of places don’t have a proper rooming house license and rent them out without having them inspected,” Grim said.
Of course, there is the problem of apartments not being required to be inspected, but there are talks of forming a landlord registration in the future, Baumann said.
“Right now there is not a whole lot we can do about unregistered houses, unless the tenants have a problem and they call us to inspect it, or if we see a problem and inspect it, but otherwise there is no way for us to really monitor houses that are not registered,” Baumann said.
The Supreme Court requires yearly inspections for registered rooming houses. Most landlords do it right and register their properties, Baumann said.
“The city does a great job of making people comply with the codes and keeping the codes updated,” Grim said.
Scott Sheets, an undeclared fourth year student, said he lives in a four-story rooming house with 20 other people.
“The landlord said the city would come and do an inspection and they did. They checked all the fire extinguishers and smoke detectors and everything was fine,” he said.
“We like living here. In fact, most people have renewed their leases for next year,” Sheets said.
In their house they have a fire escape inside and outside, as well as several entrances, 19 smoke detectors on his floor and numerous fire extinguishers, Sheets said.
“Our house is a really old house, but it has no major problems. All the smoke detectors work fine,” said Jamie Freisinger, a senior in mechanical engineering who lives with six other people in a rooming house. “I feel very safe in my home.”
“All rooming houses are under the same requirements so overall most places should be safe and up to code,” Grim said.
