The purpose of this article is to protect the
health, safety and welfare of Village residents and establish a procedure
and standards for the identification and registration of rental dwelling
properties to ensure that the Village has an efficient and effective
means of communicating with those persons and companies who own rental
dwelling properties. The Village finds and declares that the registration
of rental dwelling property is intended to and will ensure the protection
of persons and property in residential rental structures required
to be registered under this article as well as the public.
Except as hereinafter provided, this article
shall apply to every property with rental dwelling unit(s) that is
leased, rented, let, assigned or otherwise classified as a rental
property, with or without valuable consideration, by an absentee owner
or a legal agent on behalf of the owner.
The following terms shall apply in the interpretation
and enforcement of this article:
AGENT
Any person who has charge, care or control of a building,
or part thereof, in which rental dwelling units are let.
DWELLING
Any building which is wholly or partly used or is intended
to be used as habitable space for human occupants.
OWNER
Any person or entity who, alone or with others, has legal
or equitable title.
RENTAL DWELLING PROPERTY
Property containing one or more rental dwelling units, not
including single-family detached buildings.
RENTAL DWELLING UNIT
Any room or contiguous group of rooms located within a building
and forming a single, habitable living space for one family other
than the owner.
All rental dwelling property shall be registered
with the Village Clerk by the owner as required herein. Such registration
shall apply to every property with rental dwelling unit(s) that are
leased, rented, let, assigned or otherwise classified as a rental
dwelling property, with or without valuable consideration. Such registration
shall not apply to owner-occupied rental dwelling property where the
owner resides at the rental dwelling property on a full-time basis
and it being the domicile of the owner.
The owner of any rental dwelling property already
registered with the Village shall reregister within 30 days after
any change occurs in registration information. A new owner of a registered
rental dwelling property shall reregister the property within 60 days
of assuming ownership.
The Village shall maintain a registry of all
rental dwelling property containing the following information that
shall be provided by the owner on forms available from the Village
Clerk:
A. The name, legal residence address, mailing address,
home and business telephone number, cell phone number and fax number
of the owner and any agent in control of the rental dwelling property,
and, in the event the owner or agent is not a natural person, then
the owner information shall be that of the president, general manager
or other officer or principal responsible for the management of the
premises for the organization. Where more than one natural person
has an ownership interest, the required information shall be included
for each owner.
B. The number of rental units in the dwelling.
C. The address of the rental dwelling property.
D. A description of the rental dwelling property by street
number, or block and lot, including Tax Map identification number.
E. If neither the address of the owner or the address of the agent, as provided in Subsection
A, are within Schenectady County or within a contiguous county, the name, legal residence or business address within Schenectady County and telephone number of a natural person who shall be an agent for service of notices and orders issued under this article and for service of process in connection with the prosecution of violations of this article in Village Court or other court of competent jurisdiction shall be provided.
[Amended 9-9-2009 by L.L. No. 8-2009]
It shall be a violation of this article for
an owner or a responsible person to provide inaccurate information
for the registry of rental dwelling property or to fail to provide
the information required herein for the registry.
This article shall be enforced by the Building
Inspector.
Any person, firm or corporation violating any
provision of this article shall, upon conviction thereof, be punishable
by a fine of not more than $250 or imprisonment for a term not to
exceed 15 days, or both.