On Thursday, February 18, Wilmington City Council ended a five-year legislative stalemate and voted to enact greater protections for individuals, children, and families who rent their homes. The Council approved reforms to the City’s Housing Code that will end the practice of landlords refusing for months, or even as much as a year, to repair code violations. The new law, which takes effect July 1, will ensure that tenants throughout the City have a much better chance of living in safer, cleaner, and more comfortable housing.
Under its provisions, landlords who continually ignore the repair of code violations, as cited by Licenses and Inspections, will be fined $250 per week, per violation, until the code infraction is resolved.
“This five-year effort to reform the housing code has been about ensuring that landlords are properly licensed and that they respect their tenants’ right to live safely and comfortably,” Mayor Purzycki said. “It shouldn’t have taken this long, but finally we’ve reached a point where the people who choose to be in the business of property rentals have to accept their responsibility to their tenants and to the neighborhoods in which their properties are located.”
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