Curwensville, PA, approves residential rental property registration ordinance

Curwensville, PA: City Council has passed a residential rental property registration ordinance.

Any property to be rented for residential purposes must first be registered with the City, before any persons are allowed to occupy the property or continue to occupy, and all properties must be kept up to the standards set forth in the International Property Maintenance Code 2009.

Registration includes a form for supplying current contact information for the owner, or if the owner does not reside in Clearfield County, then a representative must be declared that resides within Clearfield County and all their current contact information is also required; the City must be notified of any changes to any information within 30 days.

The registration fee is $25 per unit of the given property, to be renewed annually, and all properties must be registered within 30 days of notification of need to register; failure to register can result in a $300 fine per property.

Post registration being filed, an inspection of the property will occur, wherein it will be determined if the property is up to Code; with annual inspections to occur for the duration of the property’s registration.

Any violations found must be resolved within a timeframe agreed to by the City for the given violations, and another inspection will occur to determine if the violations are resolved; re-inspections for unresolved violations will incur an additional $75 fee for inspections, per instance.

Before the occupancy can resume, if the property is vacant, for any unit found to have violations, in addition to the inspection and any fees for re-inspection, there is a $200 reinstatement fee per unit to be paid to allow occupancy to resume.

Occupation found for any unit on a property that is not registered within 30 days of notification is subject to a fine of $100 per unit per month. Any Code violations not resolved in a set timeframe with the City are subject to a fine of minimum $100 per unit, per month. Violations of other areas of the ordinance may be subject to fines of up to $1,000 per month.

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