Council drops point of sale

Home inspections ‘not working’

Lorain will eliminate a point of sale inspection process for houses.

On Nov. 16, Lorain City Council voted 10-1 to repeal the program that started in 2014 aiming to boost the quality of the housing stock.

But there’s little proof the program has done so, at least according to Lorain home values. The ordinance stated “the ‘point of sale’ inspection has not achieved its intended purpose of raising home values and stabilizing the housing stock in the city of Lorain.”

In committee discussion on Sept. 28, Ward 4 Councilman Greg Argenti suggested eliminating the inspections entirely.

On Nov. 16, Argenti was joined by several council members commenting on the point of sale legislation.

The inspections began with reviews of interior and exterior conditions. Now the city inspectors stay outside, examining only the exterior of the home, Argenti said.

“How are you going to do a housing inspection if you don’t enter the house?” he said.

The point of sale inspections take them away from other code enforcement du

ties, Argenti said. But if Lorain had stronger building code enforcement, that almost would eliminate the need for point of sale inspections because homeowners would maintain and repair their houses, he said.

“I don’t think there’s a lot to be gained,” with the point of sale inspections, Argenti said. “I think we need to enforce the codes we have on the books and that will improve our housing stock.”

Council response

Argenti spoke about the issue before and during the meeting. He was joined by council members Beth Henley, Mitch Fallis, Mary Springowski, Joshua Thornsberry and Rey Carrion, who all spoke about the issue.

The program did not have teeth needed to upgrade properties and stabilize the neighborhoods, Henley said. Investors and their attorneys say the inspections don’t work for them, Fallis said.

The inspections started with good intent, Springowski said, but it suffered from a lack of meaningful enforcement. Carrion agreed the intent was good and meaningful but the program was not working.

Thornsberry called it a great idea that was poorly executed. He was the lone dissenting vote because he wanted to repeal the point of sale legislation and replace it with new rules.

Home values

The ordinance cited a history of median home values in the city. The legislation was drafted by Building, Housing and Planning Director Max Upton, who spoke about it before the meeting.

Council first approved the point of sale legislation in 2013, when the median home value was $83,500.

The current median home value is $95,000, largely attributable to the rate of inflation, according to the repealing ordinance.

“Just track the rate of inflation over the last number of years,” Upton said.

From 2013 to 2020, the value of the dollar has changed about 11 percent. The city housing values have gone up about the same percentage, he said.

“So our housing stock has gone up nominally but adjusted for inflation, it’s been stagnant,” Upton said.

Point of sale was crafted with the goal of raising property values, Upton said.

“Did it achieve that after being in place for seven years? My thought is, no,” he said.

When the administration proposed modifying the ordinance, council members expressed a desire to see the whole thing go away, Upton said.

“I spoke to the mayor about it, I spoke to my staff about it and, you know, frankly we wouldn’t be sad to see it go away either,” Upton said.

The department has housing inspectors that spend about half their work time on point of sale reviews, Upton said. He echoed Argenti’s comments about how they could spend their work time.

“So the time that they are spending on point of sale, is time that they’re not spending doing code enforcement activities,” Upton said. Those activities are going after the property maintenance code violations that are the worst of the worst, he said.

“So if they had a 50 percent increase in their time going after code enforcement violations, then I think that would have a larger impact,” Upton said.

“I think we need to enforce the codes we have on the books and that will improve our housing stock.” — Ward 4 Councilman Greg Argenti