April 3, 2014
MEDIA CONTACT
Maurice A . Thompson
(614) 340-9817
Ohio Cities' Rental Licensing and Inspection Requirements
Unconstitutional
Legal Center moves to protect property rights of landlords
from unlawful searches and licensing regulations in Mt. Healthy, Ohio
Columbus, OH - The 1851 Center for Constitutional Law today
moved in federal court to immediately enjoin Ohio municipalities, and the City
of Mt. Healthy in particular, from enforcing new "Rental Permit
Programs" that require small landlords to undergo warrantless inspections,
pay permit fees, and obtain a license simply to continue renting their houses
to tenants.
Such municipal ordinances, such as the Mt. Healthy ordinance
which became effective in March, in addition to restricting Ohioans' property
rights, subject property owners and tenants to open-ended warrantless searches
that violates the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and
Section 14, Article I of the Ohio Constitution. Further, the Rental Permit
Program discriminatorily applies only to single family homes, and not to
multi-family residences, such as apartments.
The legal action is filed on behalf of four rental property
owners and one tenant, all in the City of Mt. Healthy, Ohio, which is located
just outside of Cincinnati in Hamilton County. These property owners have long
rented their property in Mt. Healthy without license or inspections, and their
properties have never been the subject of complaint by tenants, neighbors, or
others.
The City has threatened to criminally prosecute and even imprison
these landlords if they continue to rent their homes without first submitting
to an unconstitutional warrantless search of the entire interior and exterior
of these homes.
Both the United States and Ohio Supreme Court have
invalidated warrantless inspections of rental property, and repeatedly held
that warrantless administrative inspections of business property are generally
invalid, absent exigent circumstances.
Nevertheless, Ohio cities have vigorously sought to collect
licensing fees from area landlords and find cause to impose fines, and the
warrantless searches serve as the lynchpin to each of these goals.
Ordinances such as the Mt. Healthy Rental Permit Program
establish an absolute prohibition on renting property within a community, even
though the landlord may have long done so and even though his or her property
may be in pristine condition, without a government-approved license that cannot
be acquired without first paying a $100 annual fee per rental home and
submitting to an open-ended warrantless search of the property, inside and out.
The lawsuit seeks to restore Ohio small business owners'
freedom from warrantless searches without probable cause. In doing so, the 1851
Center's Complaint explains the following:
Searches of homes, even when business property to the owner,
require a warrant, and warrantless searches violate Ohioans' Fourth Amendment
rights.
Even if a city were to seek a warrant to insect a rental
home, in the absence of serious complaints about the property or an emergency,
regulatory schemes such as rental permit programs do not allow cities to seek
and obtain warrants to search homes.
Licensing fees that are designated for the purpose of
conducting unconstitutional searches are also unconstitutional, and cities
cannot require their payment.
"Local government agents do not have unlimited
authority to force entry into Ohioans' homes or businesses. To the contrary
'houses' are one of the types of property specifically mentioned by the Fourth
Amendment; and Ohioans have a moral and constitutional right to exclude others,
even government agents, from their property. Entry requires either a warrant or
an emergency, and neither is present with respect to these suspicionless rental
inspections," said Maurice Thompson, Executive Director of the 1851
Center.
"Government inspections of one's home frequently
results in arbitrary orders to make thousands of dollars worth of untenable
improvements to even the most well-maintained properties. The right to own
property in Ohio has little value if local governments can continuously chip
away at one's right to actually make use of that property, requiring government
permission slips for even the most basic human arrangements."
Read the Rental Property Owners' Complaint HERE.
Read the Rental Property Owners' Motion for
Preliminary Injunction HERE
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