I didn’t know they were doing this now, thanks for the post update. That’s smart of them to look on that website. One thing I will tell you is whenever you have to pay your annual rental license fee, if it’s late and not paid on time, I know one city for sure will charge you double the annual fee for each property.

It’s probably a good thing that they do require a license, hopefully landlords out there keep the places up and take land lording serious, it’s a business just like anything else.

is there any way to get around the ouragous $1000 license fee they charge. How do they enforce this. Thanks

Actually, I believe that the court system would define this amount as unconscionable. It simply would take a $60 fee to bring a small claims court action against the city of Minneapolis.

I called Doris Lane
And asked about the $1000 charge. She could not tell me what service I got for the money. She said it would take a day to inspect with 3 inspections. I reminded her that an inspection is already performed by the county for hazardous items. She said that was a different inspection.
In my opinion, it’s looking like discrimination. For renters, one requires a certain set of rules, and for homeowners, a different set of rules.

If anyone would like to band together against this, I would gladly setup documentation and take the city to task in small claims court for a ruling.

Hopefully we can get enough landlords to bring the cost down to $10 each, and cause the city to spend thousands of dollars with lawyers.

I have fought against the experts before and won.

I believe I can do it again.

I am in. 100%. Anyone else? E-mail this discusson forum around and lets see how many people we can get!

Allan, I’m in. I tried to fight that $1000 extortion through reason but there is no reasoning with people that just don’t care. How may I help?

The city just sent me a letter about this. As you stated, they are charging a $1000 inspection fee as well as a $250 administrative fee. However, they also gave me a citation for renting without a license. The citation is an additional $500.

All in all, I’ll be paying $1815 to convert my single family home to a rental.

Do you know if the inspectors typically also require a lot of changes to the property?

I’d be interested in working to get the city to lower this fee.

They require all kinds of improvements and changes. Your property cannot score more than 25 points for a single family and if it does it is considered “sub-standard.” There is an extensive list of things they can require you to do from simple painting to inspection items as vague as “repair public area” or “Room too small.” There are different point thresholds for differing numbers of units. We already have an attorney looking into this to see if there is a claim for property owners to be able to dispute the license “conversion fee” as they call it of $1000. The other licensing requirements have been in place since December 1st, 2004 so I am not as optimistic that there will be anything a person can do in order to fight those. If there was a case for a suit then we would be looking to identify people that could kick into a pool so that we could spread legal costs out. It would require a couple hundred people at $100 to $200 a crack I would imagine to really take them to task on the issue.

I’m in if anyone is still thinking of fighting this!

I’m in 100%. I moved to Seattle from Minneapolis a year ago, and renting the house I own has been an absolute nightmare because of the City of Minneapolis. I applied for a rental license, and 2-3 months after I submitted my application with payment, the city sent my check back to me with a letter about the $1000 conversion inspection fee and stated it was due in a week!

I was just informed today that I’ll be receiving an invoice for an administrative fee, no doubt it will be the $250 fee referred to in your posts. Seriously, what’s next? They will not grant my rental license until they receive this admin fee, so I’m basically in violation for renting my property right now because it has taken almost 6 months to get to this point even. It’s been extremely frustrating.

Doris Lane was no help whatsoever, and it was next to impossible to get her on the phone.

I believe a slew of $60 small claims court actions would suffice. It is totally outrageous that a city holds one particular type of business like this. Did you know that hotels in Minneapolis host families for many many months yet they are not held to the same requirements.
Did you know that people rent heavy equipment in Minneapolis that can kill you? They don’t have to answer to the city. Did you know that the city of Minneapolis rents out their property with impunity?

My email address is alanwms [at] gmail [dot] com

If I get enough response, I will setup an on line database allowing everyone to enter their details so you all can band together against the city.

I am in the same boat. Literally MOVED OUT OF STATE to live with family so I could rent my house so I could still pay my mortgage. My rent doesn’t cover my mortgage but I’ve been lucky enough not to have to foreclose right now. I’m still out of state and would like to move back when the economy improves. I received a fine for $500 and told I had to pay a $1000 coversion fee, please know this comes after I had a Truth in Housing inspection to try to sell my house and passed that with flying colors but sadly the market had changed so much the house wouldn’t sell. I appealed the fine of $500, they sent a court date notice (after having given them my NEW address to send the appeal info to, which they successfully did) to my old address. My renters forwarded the mail, but didn’t get it until the day before the court date!!!! I called and left messages with everyone because I couldn’t get up to MN in a matter of 12 hours. They held the hearing anyway and they ruled against me of course, because I wasn’t there. I am outraged. SOOOO many people I know can’t sell their homes and in an attempt to be responsible the city is exploiting a change in circumstance and taking advantage of VERY VERY financial fragile people. It’s very sad, after 20 years in Minneapolis, 20 years of paying property taxes, it’s just a huge slap in the face. It makes me disgusted. I don’t know what to do.

Greetings everyone. My name is John Braun, and I am in the same boat, with the exception that I have worked over the past year to develop a civil suit about this very question. I am also a law student, which means I have access to a lot of legal research tools, if not a lot of time. With a few others, I am willing to take this into court. You may contact me at cherokee239 [at] hotmail [dot] com

thanks
John Braun
JD candidate 2011
University of Minnesota Law School

I’m in the process of getting ready to rent my place and found out about the fee on mpls site. In the blog it infers this fee is new, how new is this? Also…do your property taxes change when you convert your place from Homestead to Rental property? I’m trying to anticipate all the increased cost due to renting my property…

Non Homested is a lot higher then homested taxes. No way is anywhere close to the same.

anyone who gets this, I am building a list of homeowners to protest this unlawful fee! the city of new hope did the same thing and got the fee reduced, my goal is to get the fee eliminated and insted require a private inspection. email me at nomorefees2010 [at] yahoo [dot] com to be added to the list!

I am interested in joining a landlord advocacy group. I think the inspection service is using Gestapo methods and treating us as if we are criminals. We pay their salaries and they are our employees. I also need a lawyer because I got a surprise eviction notice for a unit that apparently is not zoned properly. I got the notice, with no prior information, on Friday May 28 after all the offices were closed. Yet, someone was working because they put the eviction notice up on the door of my legally approved second floor unit today, Sunday, Memorial Day weekend! I am always willing to cooperate and improve my buildings, but this type of treatment is rude, disrespectful and dictatorial. I need to fight it and looking for others who may have dealt with this problem as well. Thanks,
Olga 6120-308-7101