City has plan for run-down properties

LEBANON, Ind. (WISH) - Some city leaders in Lebanon are working on a plan to take care of run-down rental properties.

Their message to landlords: fix them up or pay up.

"With rental properties in general, it seems like a lot of these places have just gone down hill,” said City Planning Director Charlie Campbell. “And a lot of people don't seem to want to spend the money to do the renovations."

He said his office gets complaints on a weekly basis – sometimes several times a week – about a rental property that needs attention.

Campbell said city leaders are finalizing a plan that would require Lebanon’s 1,500-plus rental units to be inspected every two years. The city would hire an inspector to schedule and perform them to make sure each unit is up to code.

“Our intention is to make sure landlords are providing renters with safe properties,” said Campbell.

He displayed pictures from rental properties that included a crumbling wall, a hole in another wall, exposed electrical wires, and a kind of ply-wood that had been used as exterior siding.

Campbell said the proposed ordinance is still a work in progress, but was modeled using similar ordinances from other communities.

He said he expects the idea to go before the city council in the next few months.