Building Inspection Checklist

City of Dells to add more inspections of housing

Wisconsin Dells should not expect employee housing landlords to pay for inspections, two companies doing building inspections said.

John Langhans of MSA, who is the Lake Delton Village Engineer, and Bradley Boettcher of General Engineering, said for the owners to pay the firms doing an inspection might present a conflict of interest and might make it difficult for the firms to collect fees.

Langhans and Boettcher were responding to a proposal made by Mayor Brian Landers Thursday at a meeting of the city's Employee Housing and Transitional Housing Committee.

Landers said the committee's purpose includes clearly defining housing for employees as differentiated from rental housing and provide some standard practices. He suggested that the city list vendors who could do inspections of employee housing according to a checklist prepared by the city and the owner of the housing pay the inspectors. To apply for the necessary license to rent to seasonal employees the housing would have to pass the inspections and bring proof of passing to apply for the license.

How will you deal with it when they don't pass inspections? Boettcher asked.

Landers said the inspections would be done in plenty of time so the owner could make the repairs, and if the housing had a major violation and did not pass it would not get an application.

Langhans said that housing owners should pay up front to the city and then the inspector would come and do the inspection. He said otherwise the firms would have to write a separate contract for each owner while if the city contracted with the firms, one contract could be written.

If the city did not contract with inspectors or specify who could do inspections, the landlords might have unqualified people do them, the engineers said.

Assistant Public Works Director Chris Tollaksen said the city would be putting the inspectors in an awkward situation if they have to tell the owner he does not pass and then bill him for the service.

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