POMEROY — The clock is ticking for those rental owners in Pomeroy who have yet to pay their annual rental inspection fee.

Sunday, Feb. 28 is the deadline to pay the fee and be scheduled for an inspection without facing possible fines and court costs. Rental property owners who are not in compliance with paying the inspection fee could be subject to a fine of $100, plus court costs in Pomeroy Mayor’s Court.

The actual inspection fee is $25 per rental unit or $20 per unit in an apartment complex. It’s estimated there are approximately 300 rental units in Pomeroy which require a rental inspection done by the Pomeory Code Enforcement Officer who works within the Pomeroy Police Department, though the code enforcement officer has no arresting powers.

Pomeroy Chief of Police Mark E. Proffitt said the rental inspections were instituted to raise the standing of living for tenants and to create a paper trail for landlords, detailing the condition of their rental property should it become damaged by a tenant. The inspections are based upon guidelines from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development Office though even if a property has passed inspection with HUD, if it’s located in Pomeroy, it still requires passing rental inspection by the code enforcement officer.

The way the village ordinance is written, even if a landlord pays the $25 annual inspection fee, if a tenant moves out after the fee is paid, an additional $25 is required for a new inspection before a new tenant can move in. During a discussion on the matter last month, Councilman Victor Young raised discussion about this, saying if a landlord has multiple tenants move in and out of property several times a year, paying the village $25 for each tenant adds up. Also at that time, Young, who also owns rental property, also cited the need for rental property within the village.

Pomeroy Village Council also recently passed an amendment to the housing ordinance which included a $15 re-inspection fee for additional visits to rental property by the code enforcement officer to ensure an existing problem, which had previously been noted, has been fixed. Proffitt previously explained this fee as being applicable when, for example, the code enforcement officer shows up to inspect rental property but finds mold or a broken window. The inspection would then be halted and rescheduled until the problem(s) were fixed. The return of the code enforcement officer to the property to resume the inspection would come with a $15 re-inspection fee in addition to the previously paid $25 to recoup the cost of multiple visits to the same properties.

For more information about the rental inspections or to schedule an inspection with Code Enforcement Officer Homer Mills, call the Pomeroy Police Department at 992-6411. Even if the rental inspection isn’t completed before Feb. 28, as long as the fee has been paid before the deadline, landlords won’t be subject to noncompliance citations. Once the fee has been paid, an inspection will be scheduled as soon as possible.