Rental license fees hit owners in Carpentersville

The housing crunch in Carpentersville could worsen if the village fails to reduce rental license fees and inspection criteria that landlords and real estate experts say are keeping potential investors at bay, pushing existing rental property owners out.

More than a dozen landlords confronted the village's Audit and Finance Commission Tuesday over the cost of rental license fees that some property owners call excessive, but what the village says pays for inspections and licensing.

In late 2008, the village raised the rental license fee from $175 for a single family home to $500 every three years. A $75 fee every three years was also applied to attached units such as condominiums, apartments, townhouses and duplexes.

"We're investing in this community and paying the rental license fee while next door the people own the house and it is a pigsty and no one is doing anything about it," said Jeannie Schweitz, a property owner. "The fee went from $75 to $175 to all of a sudden $500. I can see a gradual increase with some communication ... You are going to make it a ghost town."

In addition to the fee, Larry Hines, the landlord of three properties in the village, said the costs of maintenance and repairs that are needed after each inspection are also a financial burden to the rental property owners.

"This village is not friendly to investors," Hines said. "Every three years you come in and there's something that has to be retrofitted because of something new on the books. It's killing me."

Landlords said surrounding municipalities either do not require a fee or are priced well below Carpentersville. Property owner Gary Schweitz prepared a comparison of neighboring towns showing that Elgin required a $71 license every three years, while East Dundee, Algonquin and West Dundee did not assess a fee.

Commission members mulled extending the length of the certificate to five years and offering an incentive, such as discounts for permits needed to bring the property up to code. But commission members were not amenable to lowering the fee and burdening tax payers.

"I feel the fee should offset the cost of maintaining and overseeing (the program)," Commissioner Paul Lanspa said. "Other towns subsidize their programs with the Riverboat ... We don't have that luxury. We depend on the residents."