Reading OKs new inspection ordinance [Reading Eagle, Pa.]

Dec. 28--City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a new version of the pre-sale inspection ordinance that it repealed in 2006, requiring all properties to get checked for code compliance when they're on the market.

The ordinance mandates that property owners get a certificate of transfer for all properties -- residential or commercial -- sold after April 1, 2012.

To get the certificate, the owners will have to pay $150 for the health and safety inspection, and pass it. However, the inspection will be scaled down from the full-blown inspection required under the earlier program that cost $300.

It's also far less than the higher costs in a new fee schedule for other inspections that council adopted Tuesday. For instance, a regular inspection of a single-family home will cost $505, up from $240.

Council members said real estate agents will have a checklist of what the inspection covers.

The requirement applies to all properties, including those taken by a bank through foreclosure.

To enforce it, the ordinance requires real estate and title insurance officials to present the certificate along with the deed transfer documents to the Berks County recorder of deeds.

The recorder of deeds office would flag properties that come through with no certificate, and the city would go after the new owners.

There are some exemptions, such as when a property is transferred between spouses in a divorce case.

Council killed the former program because it seemed certain to fail a voter referendum sought by a local group who got a Berks County Court order mandating it.

However, the city's outside consultants have said the new inspection program is not subject to referendum because, like the rental housing ordinance, it's required by the city's Act 47 financial recovery plan.

Council members said many owners transfer properties to get out of code problems, and the new inspections will catch those.

"The execution of this ordinance is really critical," Councilman Jeffrey S. Waltman Sr. said.

He told Council President Vaughn D. Spencer that when Spencer is sworn in as mayor next week his administration will have to work hard at enforcement.

Council voted 4-3 to pass the fee changes. Besides raising the cost of inspections for single- and multiunit rentals, they also include a $9 drop, to $203, in the annual trash fee for those using the city trash hauler, and a $4 drop, to $82, for the recycling fee.

Contact Don Spatz: 610-371-5027 or [email protected].

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