The need for regulations to address minimum property maintenance standards has its origins in 2002, when the Board of County Commissioners adopted 2000 Edition of the International Property Maintenance Code (IPMC).

The IPMC applied to all existing residential and nonresidential structures and all existing premises and it represented the minimum requirements and standards for premises, structures, equipment, and facilities for light, ventilation, space, heating, sanitation, protection from the elements, life safety, safety from fire and other hazards, and for safe and sanitary maintenance.

The IPMC required that existing structures and premises that do not comply with these minimum provisions to be altered or repaired to provide the minimum level of health and safety as required therein.

 Eight months later, however, the Board of County Commissioners rescinded the Resolution adopting the IPMC.

Beginning in 2010, interest in minimum property maintenance standards was reignited. Between 2010 and 2015, the Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC) held various meetings where they considered draft Ordinances regulating maintenance standards for rental housing.

In April 2015, Community Conversations meetings were held in various locations throughout the County. At each of the meetings, attendees were asked to fill out a survey identifying their priorities for DeSoto County.

More than 91 percent of the attendees supported implementation of a minimum rental housing maintenance standard.

In October 2015, the County Administrator directed the Development Department to take the lead in preparing an Ordinance establishing minimum rental housing exterior maintenance standards.

In November 2015, a draft minimum rental housing exterior maintenance standards Ordinance was brought before the Planning Commission for discussion and the Commission recommended the Ordinance be finalized but requested that it undergo significant public involvement.

The Development Department has placed the draft Ordinance and the inspection form on the County website, has presented the Ordinance to the Chamber of Commerce Board of Director, and has sent letters to licensed real estate brokers and salespersons inviting them to a presentation on February 12.

Realtors and salespersons are perhaps the persons who best understand how curb appeal affects the marketability of property. You best understand the loss in sales and property values associated with properties for sale that are in proximity to poorly maintained properties.

Today I will briefly discuss what the proposed Ordinance regulates, and what it doesn’t regulate.

The Ordinance regulates the following features:

The Ordinance also regulates the following features: ○Trim features and materials ○Chimneys and towers ○Screens ○Building security ○Mailboxes

The Ordinance does not regulate the following:

○Owner-Occupied dwellings ○Equipment ○Heating ○Sanitation ○Life Safety ○Safety from fire & other hazards ○Pavement