In order to provide incentives to landlords to provide safe
and decent housing and to provide reasonable supervision and maintenance
of their properties by avoiding criminal liability in the Municipal
Court and such other tribunals that may have jurisdiction, the Borough
seeks to institute a deferred prosecution program which shall afford
landlords with an opportunity to remediate overcrowding and other
unsafe and unfit housing conditions within the Borough without undue
waste of enforcement and Court resources.
To qualify for a deferred prosecution agreement, in addition to the general criteria set forth in §
523-26 of this article, a landlord must demonstrate that he or she has exercised reasonable supervision of the premises, which must include, at minimum:
A. Maintenance of a written log evincing the date of inspections and
a description of the areas inspected on at least a quarterly basis
and signed and sworn to by the owner, or his or her agent, who conducted
the inspection;
B. The existence of a written lease, or rider thereto, in both English
and Spanish, which must contain the following information or provisions:
(1) Specification of the maximum occupancy of the unit in accordance with §
523-22A of Article
III of this chapter;
(2) That every tenant must be identified on the lease and registered
with the Borough;
(3) That there may be no change in tenancy without amending the lease,
the tenant registration form filed with the Borough and the certificate
of occupancy, as applicable;
(4) That somebody residing within the unit for more than 30 days, or
who pays any amount of rent to any person in order to reside therein,
shall be considered a tenant;
(5) That no person shall interfere with or disable any fire protection
equipment;
(6) That there shall be no occupancy of any attic or basement areas unless
they have been inspected and approved for occupancy; and
(7) That any violation of any of the above shall constitute a lease violation
and a violation of the law which may subject a tenant to fines or
imprisonment.
C. Prominent display within the dwelling space of a placard, which shall be supplied by the Borough at the time of the issuance of the certificate of occupancy, which placard shall bear the serial number of that certificate of occupancy, as well as all of the information set forth in Subsection
B of this section in both English and Spanish;
D. Compliance with the Borough's
Tenant Registration Ordinance and possession of a valid certificate of occupancy, both
of which shall reflect the tenants listed on the written lease.
E. The Borough shall cooperate with any property owner who enters into
a deferred prosecution agreement by making its employees available
to provide truthful testimony upon reasonable notice in any legal
proceedings related to the violations covered by a deferred prosecution
agreement.