Let Us Get On with Rental Inspections

Unfortunately, the Zonemaven has come upon, yet again, a rental situation that manifestly emphasizes the need for a rental inspection program in Bellingham.  The circumstances below indicate a system that does not work for the tenants, the landlords, the city staff or various other organizations that operate quite separately, under little or no common ground or statutes.

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a couple who had just moved into an apartment unit on Cottonwood Ave.  The unit is part of a small complex consisting of 20 units "operated" by Lakeway Realty.  (See other Lakeway rentals featured in my blog here and here.)  Due to health conditions of the couple and in their effort to save several hundred dollars a month in rent, they fell into rental hell.  Hell in the way of the condition of the rental.  Hell in the way of getting anything repaired properly or repaired at all. Hell in the way of removing themselves from an untenable situation.  A rental licensing and inspection program would have gone a long way toward alleviating the problems encountered by this couple.

[Follow the blue links to photos and documents]

Inexpensive rent does not mean that people should live in unsafe and unsanitary conditions.  After moving in, the couple began to discover some serious problems with their unit.  The water tank did not produce any warm water nor was there any water pressure.  There was loose and unprotected wiring next water sources and the water stream in the bathroom would just disappear.  A plumber came by and said that the hot water tank needed to be replaced.    When the water heater was eventually replaced a pipe valve broke during the night.  This water leak led to the discovery of a long term problem that had soaked the wall board behind the cabinetry in the kitchen.  That led to the discovery of a faulty water heater and exposed wiring.

Attempts to repair the damage produced some downstream problems for the tenants who were forced to spend a night in a hotel (repayment promised by the landlord) only to find that the landlord would provide only half of the one night's hotel charge and refused to pay for any additional nights although the apartment was not ready.  A call to the city brought out an inspector who, in spite of the apparent lack licensed plumbers and electricians, approved the installation of a new water heater and associated electrical work.  In an email to the tenants the inspector stated,

"Without knowledge to the contrary, we are left to assume the work is safe regardless of licensing requirements."

The tenants contacted the Whatcom County Health Department to obtain information on removing mold and were advised to bring in an expert in air quality from the Northwest Clean Air Agency.  His report on the effects of the long term water leak was that there was extensive mold:  "The wall cavity behind your kitchen sink shows evidence of long term excess moisture issues.  The wallboard has been saturated is mold covered and has lost its structural integrity.  The reverse side is also mold covered."  The Zonemaven spoke with the clean air expert who indicated that he had no enforcement power to mandate abatement of the problems.   The city inspector claimed in an email that mold issues were not within his range of responsibilities and that...

"While mold can be disgusting, it’s spores are omnipresent, it’s actually harmful to very few people, and it can also be easily killed with bleach. I was told by the worker at your house that bleach was being employed." 

Unfortunately this is not entirely true, especially in this circumstance.  (See below about the couple's asthmatic son.) Furthermore, the Centers for Disease Control says:  Absorbent or porous materials like ceiling tiles, drywall, and carpet may have to be thrown away if they become moldy.  Read more here.

Although the letter from Northwest Clean Air Agency clearly indicated that there were most likely similar mold problems in the adjoining unit, the city inspector remained uninterested in pursuing the issue with the landlord.  The landlord's answer to the mold issue was to wash and  wipe down the saturated wall board and replace only a small portion of it (around a shutoff valve) that had been completely destroyed by mold.  The CDC site above indicates that wall board cannot be merely wiped down as the mold penetrates the material as does any water that is used in the removal process.

Similar moisture problems were found in the bathroom.  The broken toilet exhibited large accumulations of mold on the underside.  The wallboard near the tub was high in moisture, confirmed by the environmental specialist.  Some shoddy attempts were made at repairs involving replacement of molding with various pieces of unpainted wood while painting of wall surfaces that were clearly disintegrating.  A badly installed shower/tub diverter (upside down?) appears to have been letting shower water flow between the tub and the wall.  A closet in the hallway that abuts the back of the shower wall showed signs of water damage from moisture wicking the entire width of some plywood that constituted the rear wall of the closet.  

As these shenanigans were taking place, the husband, who was asked by the management to repair by himself a faulty ceiling light fixture in the kitchen, discovered that the insulation on the wiring was crumbling and flaking easily exposing the wire.  Zonemaven's research indicated that the apartment units were built in the 1950s, likely not having been rewired since with the exception of a few places associated with appliances.  There may be problems throughout the complex not only of deteriorating insulation but also with lack of ground wiring a practice prevalent during the 1950s. 

Replacement of the cabinetry and minimal repairs to the dry wall in the kitchen produced a fine layer of dust throughout the apartment, likely containing mold spores.  This may not be a problem to healthy individuals but the couple's son suffers from severe asthma and the wife has a compromised immune system. Her husband is a recent cancer patient and has had his two knees replaced.  Furthermore, the cabinetry work was never completed while the hot water repairs produced only several minutes worth of warm water.  The carpenter, who had been called in to replace the kitchen cabinet said that the owner told him only to do patch work and that the city inspector and the clean air expert had to get off the property.


At this point the couple's only option was to seek another apartment merely weeks after having moved into the one on Cottonwood.  The couple was told verbally by the management that they could get a release from the lease.  However, written confirmation was not forthcoming for a week or more. The next several weeks were spent attempting to get that release from the Lakeway Property's lease so that a new contract could be signed elsewhere.    Complicating the issue, aside from the couple's modest income, was a limited number of apartments available to meet the physical needs of the husband who, having had both knees replaced, could only live in a ground floor unit without stairs.

Much of that which this couple experienced could be attenuated or eliminated if there were a rental licensing and inspection program in this city.  The chances of an apartment with the kinds of problems described above being approved for rental would be greatly reduced.  The landlord of this unit could not have been unaware of the issues that would face a new set of renters.  Although this couple was fierce in their pursuit of repairs, not all tenants are so aggressive, especially in the face of a possible bad reference from a vindictive landlord or the confiscation, without justification, of a security deposit.  Landlords know that few tenants will pursue the recovery of such deposits through the court system.  

This city must move this year on approving an ordinance to mandate inspection of our rental units.  The Zonemaven recently met with representatives of the Associated Students of WWU.  They are planning on pushing for safe rentals as a priority issue for students this year.  The city would do well to listen to the voices representing the 10,000 student renters and others who hit our rental market each year.

[You can read more about the student efforts on rental inspections in my prior blog entry by clicking here.]

WWU Students Call (Yet Again) for Rental Inspections

The Associated Students of Western Washington University (A/S) has just sent a letter to Mayor Linville voicing the concerns of students over the dangers posed by substandard and dangerous rental housing in Bellingham and the lack of a program of regular inspections of all rentals.  The letter was signed by Patrick Stickney, the A/S Vice President for Governmental Affairs and the A/S President Ethan Glemaker.  The press release on the letter stated:

“Students make Bellingham their home for four or more years, and they should not have to deal with conditions which affect their quality of life in order to obtain an education”, said Stickney. “Students also don’t know their rights as tenants or get labeled as ‘high-maintenance tenants’ if they try to exert them. This issue doesn’t just affect students, but all residents of Bellingham who live in rental houses.” 

The letter referenced a survey of renters conducted in 2011 that demonstrated that a surprising percentage of rental homes in the city have life threatening conditions related to electrical and plumbing systems, mold, structural problems, filth and vermin.  Over two years ago, the Associated Students passed a resolution on the topic of rental inspections and asked that the city take action.  The students are still waiting.  There are some 8,000 to 10,000 student renters in the city whose 18,000 rental units remain utterly uncontrolled.  These young renters are well aware of the dangers of substandard housing as they are, for all intents and purposes, forced to  live in some of the worst year after year for lack of choice.  

Dryer Hazards in Rentals - Another Close Call

Dryer lint found at rental

An alert reader, Stephanie, forwarded to me a link to her real estate blog wherein she described a near mishap with an incipient fire in a clothes dryer in her daughter's rental unit here in Bellingham.  You can read the entire account here.  To summarize, the renters were confronted with clothing that smelled like smoke after being dried in the rental's machine.  The renters notified the owner who sent out a maintenance worker.  The photo at left shows the enormous ball of lint that had accumulated in the dryer's ventilation system and that had nearly caught fire.  Such quantities of lint do not accumulate overnight.  The blogger offers more, "This is the second apartment in two years she has lived in to have issues with the dryer venting system.  Not a good record for rental owners and property management companies.  'Failure to maintain' is the leading cause of dryer fires." This is yet another fire tragedy, closely avoided, since the health and safety of renters are at the mercy of a totally unregulated rental industry.

Note that in this case the landlord, who may actually be a fairly attentive one, ignored the fact that this kind of maintenance must be done regularly to avoid a fire.  Lint related fires number more than 15,000 each year nationwide.  They kill 15 and injure another 400.  (You may wish to read this FEMA report on such incidents.)  This supports my contention, made time and time again in this blog, that landlords (even the good ones) are not experts at ensuring that their units are free from health and safety hazards.  Nor are tenants much better at determining whether or not their electrical, plumbing or ventilation systems are functioning properly or safely.

In the case of lint clogged dryer vents, we certainly do not want tenants moving dryer units to inspect and clean the duct work.  Many dryers are gas operated and moving the machine may damage the gas lines, causing leaks ... or worse.  In many units, the duct work is not even readily accessible to tenants and is tucked away behind walls or in crawl spaces.  The landlord may incur other liabilities if he demands that the tenant risk injury to perform such maintenance.  Having a licensed inspector perform regular checks of rentals for health and safety problems is just common sense.

These young women dodged a bullet as did renters over the last 18 months in fires such as the ones on Grant St., Ellis St., and Maple St.  Not so lucky were the renters on 24th St.who were severely injured in a fire that also displaced two WWU students who lived in the adjacent unit of the fire-ravaged duplex.

Yet, the noodle of rental inspection is still being pushed along as if waiting for some grand tragedy to befall some renters to serve as a call to action.  I have been speaking to this issue now more than 5 years.  A friend in the York neighborhood found evidence in the files of that neighborhood association that the problem of deteriorating conditions in rentals was surfaced in Bellingham twenty years ago.  I was at a recent retreat attended by council members and city staff, to include the mayor.  The only council priority that was placed in consideration for the 2013 city budget was affordable housing.  This is laudable pursuit - affordable housing, however, the part about keeping our present stock of barely affordable rental property in livable condition, as in inspections, did not make the 2013 budget.

In an email exchange with, Stephanie, my real estate blogger acquaintance, I determined that she supports inspections of rentals.  I urged her and I invite you to write to the mayor (klinville@cob.org) and to the council (ccmail@cob.org) to let them know that NOW is the time for action on licensing and inspection of rentals and that all those who live in this city deserve affordable and, moreover, safe housing.

WWU Students Again Call For Rental Inspections

According to an article in the student newspaper, the Western Front, there is a new student push for the licensing and inspection of Bellingham rentals.  You can read the article by clicking here.  Previously, the editorial board of the Western Front has come out in support of rental inspections.   Click here to read the 2010 editorial. The Associated Students had already published one resolution supporting rental licensing and inspections. You can click here to read the 2010 A/S resolution.  It is time for the city council to move on this important health and safety measure and create a robust rental licensing and mandatory inspection program.  Let the city council know that you are concerned about the health and safety of our renters who occupy over 50% of the city's housing.  You can reach the city council at ccmail@cob.org.  You can also call on our new mayor, Kelli Linville, to push for an ordinance.  You can reach her at klinville@cob.org.

Cause of 24th Street Rental Fire Still Undetermined

Determining the specific cause of the tragic New Year's Day fire in a duplex rental on 24th Street in Bellingham may take yet more time as the investigation has been turned over to an insurance company. [You can read press reports about the fire by clicking here, here, here, here and here.] Unfortunately, the insurer's report may not be ultimately divulged to the Fire Department or to the public. Moreover, threats of lawsuits often loom over such incidents as we have seen with the Maple Street fire in which the threat of a lawsuit made the victims unavailable to the Zonemaven for further information gathering. You can refresh your memory of that fire by clicking here.

Earlier attempts by fire investigators to gather information from the victims of the 24th St. fire were thwarted due to their medical condition. The initial fire marshal's report on the incident, that you can read by clicking here and here, lacked much in the way of detail that would allow the public to learn some definitive lessons from the tragedy.

In several exchanges with fire officials, I learned that there are still questions with regard to the condition of the baseboard heating element. Part of the cover of the baseboard heater was missing and not found in the debris. Also missing were some of the "fins" on the heating element. Aluminum branch circuit wiring was also found leading to the heater. Use of aluminum wiring is considered to be very dangerous although there was a time during the 1970s when this type of wiring was prevalent in homes. This particular home was built in 1975 according to county records. (Click here to read more on aluminum wiring) How many other Bellingham rentals, built in the 70s, have such wiring yet today? A ticking time bomb.

A defective heating element or one that was damaged or installed improperly is of great concern. Additionally, there were no remains of smoke detectors found in the debris after the fire, although fire department personnel were not specifically looking for them. [The one eye-witness report from the guest sleeping on the sofa indicated that he did not appear to be awakened by a smoke detector but by the fire itself.] The presence of such devices (in working condition) is an important fire safety concern for all renters as these detectors are a last line of defense. A blocked exit ( furniture against a window) may have also been a factor in the inability of some of the victims to get out of the home and in rescuing the fire victims.

Also displaced by the fire were two Western Washington University students who shared the duplex. Over a dozen WWU students have been displaced from their rentals in the past year because of fires. That, in itself should be a wake up call for a comprehensive rental safety and health ordinance requiring periodic inspection of all rentals by a certified code enforcement official. Such action can provide early detection and elimination of the threats posed by poor rental conditions and dangerous tenant or landlord behavior. Blocked exits, bad electrical wiring and faulty heating systems are on the checklist of most effective rental inspection programs throughout the country. That should be the case here in Bellingham with the passage of a rental health and safety inspection ordinance - with teeth.

Vermin in Rentals

We have already seen evidence of rats in Bellingham's rentals. My blog entry on a house on Grant St. covered that topic a while back. (Click here to read that horror story.) Now additional accounts of vermin in rentals are coming to our attention. A recent article in the Western Front spoke to the problems students are encountering in their dorms and rentals not only with bed bugs but also with the mites that cause scabies and bacteria that cause staph infections. (Click here to read the Front's story. You can also read about bed bugs, mites and staph by clicking here, here and here)

These critters; bed bugs, mites, and bacteria that lead to staph infections, are difficult to eradicate so that many landlords and renters unwittingly pass them on to the next iteration of renters. Given the filthy conditions reported by renters in last year's survey of rental conditions in Bellingham (click here to read that report), the story in the Front is not surprising. The comments from those who took the survey contain additional stories of rat and flea infestations.

Rentals offered to the public ought to be spotless before the renter crosses the threshold. Especially important are clean rugs, floors and kitchen/bathroom surfaces. These items should be on the checklist of any decent inspection program for the safety and health of renters. The city of Pasco has sanitation as a category on its inspection form (Click here to see their simple form - right click on image and then enlarge). Bellingham should consider no less.

A Tale of Two Space Heaters

Two recent area fires involved the improper use of space heaters. One incident took place on January 19th in Bellingham on Cedarwood Rd . The owner of a vacant house, who also owns several other small homes in Bellingham, attempted to keep an unheated crawl space warm enough to avoid frozen water pipes by putting a space heater underneath the home. In a similar fire in Ferndale, renters were burned out of their house after they placed a space heater under the home, also in an attempt to keep water pipes from freezing. You can read the Herald account of the fires by clicking here. The Fire Chief's press release on the Bellingham fire can be read here and the investigative report from the Fire Marshal here.

The commonality of these two fires is, of course, the improper use of the space heaters. Here we have an instance in which both a landlord and a renter were ignorant of safety issues. Critics of inspection of rentals for safety and health reasons often state that landlords have sufficient knowledge to care for their units and that renters can depend upon either themselves or their landlords to ensure rentals are safe. These two stories belie such contentions.

Note the condition of this vacant property on Cedarwood to begin with. It is in very poor condition. Homes like these attract vagrants and vermin while their appearance depresses property values in the neighborhood. Moreover such dilapidated structures are a fire danger to adjacent homes, especially in this case in that the houses in this area tend to have been built close together. In this particular instance, two homes share a single lot with little space separating them.

Our city council last year was considering an ordinance that, had it been approved, would have had as its theme going after the "bad apples" so as not to "punish" all the good landlords. Exactly how these "bad apples" were to be identified was not so apparent. The owner of this vacant home has several other properties in Bellingham, although the one on Cedarwood happened to be empty. There is no indication that he is a "bad apple", yet clearly he operated unaware of basic safety. He may be, for all intents and purposes, a good landlord notwithstanding the fact that he lacks knowledge, an ignorance that could be a threat to those living in the other three properties he owns.

The fact is that , although the city council has refused to accept it, there is no way to find all the "bad apples" absent an inspection program that looks at all rentals. Any reliance on a renter complaint-based program is doomed to failure for that is the present state of affairs. The health department does not go after the "bad apple" restaurants nor do they rely solely on complaints or self-inspections. It looks at all restaurants and all restaurants pay into the system to finance these inspections. This is basic common sense that the public recognizes and supports. Nobody purposely takes his family to a filthy restaurant nor do we expect diners to check out the kitchen with their own punch list. We count on our local authorities to ensure that these establishments are safe and pose no health problem. Why should we expect less of landlords who offer their properties to the public for money?

Yet Another Rental House Fire in Bellingham

Blog entry deleted. See posting of 28 Jan 2012: A Tale of Two Space Heaters.

Western Front Editorial Again Calls for Rental Inspections

For the second time in two years the Western Front's editorial board has affirmed its support for an ordinance that would ensure the health and safety of renters in Bellingham. In a 6 January editorial, that also recommended that students obtain renters' insurance, the board stated, 'This editorial board supports rental licensing that would protect the students and families that inhabit Bellingham’s 18,000 rental properties." [You can read the board's complete editorial by clicking here. The Western Front's earlier, 2010 editorial on the subject can be found here.]

Students have good reason to be concerned. Here is the tally of near fire disasters in the last twelve months:

- A fire on Grant Street in the York Neighborhood burns. Three WWU students nearly perish. All four renters displaced. Click here to read more.

- A fire at the Daylight Building on State Street leads the fire marshal to discover that an apartment in the building has no viable fire exit for several of the rooms. Two students displaced. Click here to read more.

- A fire on Maple Street nearly kills three of the five renters, all of whom are WWU students. They lose everything in the fire. Click here to read more.

- A fire on 24th Street nearly kills an entire family in a rental home. Two students in an adjacent part of the duplex are displaced due to fire damage. Fire marshal's report pending. Read the Western Front article on the student victims here.

The tally? Thirteen students directly affected by serious fires, several of which nearly cost lives. All of these fires were electrical in origin as was another fire on Ellis Street that apparently did not involve WWU students. All of these blazes were largely preventable, especially had the city an inspection program in place.

These fires are not the only dangers facing students and other renters in Bellingham. Serious problems with mold, structural defects, blocked exits (24th Street fire!), carbon monoxide leaks, gas leaks, faulty heating systems, faulty plumbing, vermin, and all types of filth abound. I remind my readers of the survey done by a WWU student group last year that revealed the remarkable extent of the problems with conditions in rentals. (You can review the survey here.) I urge my readers to re-examine this survey and write to our council members (ccmail@cob.org) to ask them to enact an ordinance to license rentals and ensure the health and safety of the renters with regular physical verification of conditions by certified building/home inspectors.

More on the Maple Street Fire

Late last year a rental home burned on Maple St. (click here to read my original post on the fire) and five young women students from WWU lost all their belongings. Those present in the home also barely escaped with their lives. Two of the five women had been away at the time of the fire. Had it not been for two of the remaining three who heard the first floor smoke alarm, a third woman, who had been sleeping upstairs, might have died since she did not hear the alarm. Her comment to me (in an anonymous post to my blog entry on the fire) was "Not only was there not an extinguisher, I was the girl who didn't wake up. The fire alarm only went off downstairs, not in my room."

Research has shown that some people; the hearing impaired, small children and even teens; do not respond at all or respond very slowly to smoke alarms. Given that the amount of time needed to escape from a burning home is measured in minutes, the obvious conclusions can be drawn. The report on the fire (click here to read the fire marshal's report) supports the fact that one of the residents was not awakened by the alarm.

Other questions regarding the fire and the general condition of the home are yet unanswered. I have yet to speak to the fire marshal, who is now busy preparing a report of investigation on a subsequent fire on New Year's Day. Unfortunately, any further details from the victims of the fire are now unavailable as I have learned that either the landlord or his insurance company has threatened to sue the tenants over the loss of the rental. My one phone conversation with one of the renters was, therefore, limited in nature and revealed nothing regarding either the fire or the general condition of the rental home. My contact with another individual close to the family also has been effectively limited by the threat of legal ramifications on an eventual suit. Unless this incident actually goes to court, we, the people of Bellingham, are unlikely to learn more about the fire. Similarly, insurance investigations on this property and on the same landlord's property on Grant St. that burned earlier in 2011 - click here to read about that- are not public documents. Again the public is denied information that affects the health and safety of all renters in Bellingham.

As for the terrible fire in a rental on 24th Street, which ushered in the New Year for our fire department, the fire marshal's report has yet to be issued. That fire, which seriously injured members of the MacGregor family, also appears to have originated with baseboard heating. This may indicate that there is a more generalized problem regarding electric baseboard heating. (Read a report from the National Fire Protection Association on selected baseboard heating fires by clicking here.) Furthermore, none of the press reports has indicated the presence of operable smoke alarms in that rental. I will have further information on that blaze later this month.

[See below for information on efforts to provide support to the victims of this most recent fire. This information was obtained from the Bellingham Herald article of 8 Jan 2012:

"- Volunteer to collect donations at White's storage unit outside her home, 1029 22nd St. Call 360-305-4419 for more information.

- People can donate money to the MacGregor Family Benefit Account at any Peoples Bank location.

- A local Girl Scouts troop is raising money to buy the family a desktop computer. Email troop41539@gmail.com or visit supportmacgregors.blogspot.com for details."]

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/01/07/2340668/bellingham-rallies-around-family.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy