The N&O misses the point–again. Today’s front-page article on the House Bill 554 that will repeal city rental registration systems misses the fundamental point. As Raleigh Councilman Crowder admits in his letter to the editor today, the real reason for the rental registration system is to be able to enforce the Raleigh’s Probationary Rental Occupancy Permit ordinance.
Here is how the brave new world of city government works. Police officers, zoning enforcement officers and building inspectors cannot find a way to hold criminals and violators accountable for their individual actions. Police are having trouble with renters or their guests who are repeat offenders for selling drugs, or felons possessing firearms, or possessing stolen goods or gambling. Rather than doing the appropriate police work of gathering evidence, obtaining legal search warrants, and making their case in the courts, they shift the responsibility to the landlords.
Raleigh’s Probationary Rental Occupancy Permit ordinance—and similar ordinances in Charlotte and other NC cities–requires landlords to gather the evidence, determine the guilt and then do what the police cannot do and evict the tenant. If the landlords fail to evict tenants that the ordinance requires, they must obtain a probationary rental permit. Without this permit, it is illegal to rent the apartment where violations occurred. In other words, rather than holding individuals responsible for their actions, the city requires under penalty of law a third party to take action and evict the person that the city deems unacceptable. No judge, no jury, no due process.
Raleigh really doesn’t care where these people go. They could just move across the city limit to Cary or Garner. Raleigh officials are happy as long as they are out of the Raleigh’s jurisdiction.
