The Albert Lea rental housing licensing program officially went into effect this week.

Owners of rental housing are now required to apply for a rental license at the Albert Lea Fire and Inspection Department at City Hall. Owners who do so before March 31 will be granted a one-year license at no cost.

When owners apply for the license, they can also schedule an appointment for their minimum housing code inspection. All rental housing is now required to be inspected, with a goal of reducing any life-safety hazards.

Albert Lea Fire Chief and Building Inspector Paul Stieler said he wants to encourage people to come in and take advantage of the time frame when a free temporary license is offered.

“If you have what you think is a nice unit, it probably is, and you aren’t going to have any problems with the inspections,” Stieler said. “We expect that 90 percent of the units are going to have one to zero items when we inspect them, particularly if people look at the list ahead of time.”

The Albert Lea City Council passed the rental housing licensing ordinance in October and then passed the fees to go along with it in December.

The ordinance was first introduced last March, and was reworked by a task force of landlords, tenants, Realtors, property managers and city staff.

It was designed to work hand-in-hand with the city’s new Safe & Crime-Free Rental Housing Program and the public nuisance ordinance, both of which were also passed within the last year. The ordinances was passed as a means to eliminate problems with rental property.

At the time people apply for the license, a member of city staff will give them paperwork that explains the program, a copy of the license fees and a copy of the inspection form that will be used during inspections. The housing owners will be asked to fill out an application that identifies the type of their rental property — whether it’s a single family house, duplex, town house or multi-family dwelling — and then how many units are in that building.

Owners who live more than 60 miles from Albert Lea must designate a local agent that city staff can contact if a need arises. Also on the application, the owner must certify that there are no delinquent property taxes or utility bills for the dwelling unit.

In addition, the rental housing owners will be given a copy of the lease addendum for crime-free housing, which they can either use word for word in their own leases or develop a new one based off of that copy.

If people are unsure whether they need to get a license for their unit, they can contact the inspection department with questions. The ordinance requires that all new leases be written leases and include the addendum.

Stieler said the goal is to have all of the rental properties inspected by the end of the year.

As of Monday afternoon, there had already been 116 applications for a total of 372 units.

Stieler said the inspectors finished their training for the program Monday. They went over the checklist, what’s in the ordinance and actually went out to a vacant house and conducted an inspection.

During the initial period, there will be some learning for the new inspectors — who are members of the fire department — and inspections will probably have one experienced inspector and one less-experienced inspector at first, he said.

Inspections for single-family units will probably take between 15 and 20 minutes, and larger buildings should take no more than four hours, he said.

Stieler said most people who have come in to apply for their license have just had simple questions such as what’s on the inspection list, but not very many have complained.

At any time during an inspection people have a concern about an item or the result of an inspection, he encouraged them to call the inspection department or tell the inspector himself.

A second review from the inspection department is probably the first option to make sure inspectors are consistent, and then beyond that, people have the right to go to the board of appeals, which will ultimately end up with the counsel.

He said he doesn’t expect that to happen often, as most issues will be worked out one-on-one.

The application and other information about the rental housing licensing program can be found on the city’s Web site at www.cityofalbertlea.org. Click on “Departments” on the main page, select “Inspection,” and then on the left side of the next page will be a link to “Rental Housing Licensing Program.”