WATERTOWN — Councilman Stephen A. Jennings was so outraged that a woman was recently forced to start a fire in her sink to keep warm that he hopes City Council members will reconsider a rental inspection program.
Kathy L. Rapholtz, 55, of 934 Academy St., is accused of putting a piece of wood furniture in her sink, dousing it with olive oil and lighting it on fire because the apartment building’s boiler didn’t work.
Her landlord, Alan Russo, who owns several rental properties but lives in Florida, was cited with multiple code violations, including failing to provide adequate heat to the woman and another tenant. After the Jan. 23 incident, the building was condemned and cannot be habitable again until the violations are fixed.
In light of what happened with the Academy Street building, Councilman Jennings said Friday that he plans to ask his colleagues to give a rental inspection program a second chance.
“I’m sure there are other buildings with violations,” he said. “I think we have an obligation to reconsider it.”
In October, Councilman Jennings lobbied for council members to approve a rental inspection program for about 6,000 city apartments. In what was considered a compromise at the time, they established a rental registration program requiring landlords to list their apartments with the city’s Code Enforcement office.
Mayor Joseph M. Butler Jr. said he was open to looking at the inspection program again. But Councilman Cody J. Horbacz said council members already voted on the issue. He suggested that Councilman Jennings propose a different inspection program.
The Code Enforcement Office will continue to inspect apartments if the tenant or someone calls to complain about its condition, which is regulated by the state through building codes.
But Ms. Rapholtz and the other tenant in the Academy Street building never contacted the codes office to complain about its condition. The other tenant also didn’t have heat connected to the building, said Shawn R. McWayne, the city’s code enforcement supervisor.
That tenant was using a gas heater in his apartment. The landlord was cited for failing to provide heat to that unit, as well, Mr. McWayne said.
The four-unit apartment building also was cited for other violations that included a deteriorating foundation, holes in exterior walls where rodents can enter, water damage throughout the structure, inadequate plumbing and electrical systems and not having working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, according to a four-page report to the landlord.
City officials have blamed absentee landlords as the cause of many of the city’s housing woes.
Mr. Russo, who couldn’t be reached for comment, has owned the Academy Street building since 2003.
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