The Citrus Heights City Council has approved an ordinance establishing a new rental housing inspection program to preserve the aging supply of housing in the city and ensure that owners properly maintain their properties.

The California Apartment Association successfully negotiated several changes to the initial proposal resulting in lower fees and the opportunity for self-certification.

Citrus Heights has over 15,000 rental units, with 90 percent built prior to 1990. In a report to the council, city staff expressed concern that the rapid building of housing in the 1970s and 1980s resulted in a lack of quality control and the use of material that does not have along usable lifespan.

Under the program, three new code enforcement officers will be hired to conduct an inspection of every rental property over the next three years. The inspections are expected to start in July 2019. Rental properties constructed in the past five years or already subject to routine inspections by a government agency are exempt from the inspection requirements.

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