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Landlords in the city of Detroit are up in arms, but people who care about children say "It's about time!"

City of Detroit lead based paint ordinance

It's taken too many years but the city of Detroit finally said to landlords: "If you own a home or an apartment building in the city and you rent out the home or apartment it is your responsibility to make it lead free."

Is it going to be expensive for landlords? Yes. Is this new ordinance going to cause rent to rise to compensate for the testing and removal of lead? Probably.

I have a feeling though that parents of children who live in these homes and apartments within the city would gladly pay higher rent in order to protect their children. I also have a feeling that many other cities will now follow suit and be drafting their own ordinances. It's going to be an interesting year ahead watching all of this unfold within the city of Detroit and hopefully within other cities in Michigan.

It's about damned time.

The text of the Detroit News article regarding the passing of this ordinance can be found here.

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Posted by Kris Wales - Macomb County MI real estate blog & homes for sale search site on 10/23/2009 07:46 AM

Comments (7)

city of detroit lead based paint ordinance

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7 Comments on Landlords in the city of Detroit are up in arms, but people who care about children say "It's about time!"

OCT

Lead was a problem when we lived in New York as well. Here in the mountains it is less of a problem . Which ironically makes it moe of a problem as peole are not aware of it

In Maryland, our state lead laws are stricter than the federal ones. I don't think you can do too much to protect tenants from the permanent effects of lead. Way to go, Detroit!

Kris,

I guess the only question is, "what took so long?" Why would any lobby look to maintaining an unsafe environment.

As Margaret said, Maryland lead laws are very restrictive.

BTW, since your beloved Tigers will have to wait until next year, can I welcome you into the "Yankee" club?

Rich

We need to force the uncooperative landlords into compliance and reward the landlords that have complied voluntarily.

Kris, This is very interesting but I wonder if they have a way to follow up and make sure Landlords have complied? Here we have many, many illegal rentals so I'm not sure how effective a law like that would be although I think it's a wonderful one.

OCT

Hi everyone, thanks so much for commenting. I'm a bit surprised to read that this is mandatory in so many areas, and that state laws are stiffer than federal guidelines. I wish it was the case here. We're on the right track though, and I'm happy about that.

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