Milford considers proposal to charge landlords rental license fees

Landlords in Milford Borough could find their wallets a little bit lighter.

Milford Borough Councilwoman Adriane Wendell floated a proposal at the council’s Jan. 12 work session to charge a licensing fee of about $50 per unit or about $150 for a multi-unit building.

She said she came up with the numbers based on her research on what other communities are doing.

The fees would cover the borough’s costs for inspecting apartments and making sure apartments are up to code.

“It’s a license fee that covers all of the above,” Wendell said. “For example, if we had to go in for some reason because of a tenant complaint and we had to do an inspection, it covers that stuff.”

Wendell said the tenant is required to obey all borough laws, and that the owner needs to meet all zoning requirements.

Mayor Sean Strub, who owns apartments in the borough, said he was conflicted about the fees, calling them “not insignificant.”

“I’m also concerned that if someone submits this, does that mean we recognize this as an apartment?” he said. “Are we making sure every apartment that registers meets the building code and is taxed properly?”

Strub said he is fine with the proposal if every apartment is inspected and all apartments is brought up to code.

He also said the borough has no mechanism for tenants to file a complaint.

“We do get complaints, and we’ve had situations where a zoning officer has responded to a complaint and been denied access,” Wendell said. “You can’t really deny it if he requests it.”