Rental Registration Program Update

1. January 14, 2021
RENTAL REGISTRATION
PROGRAM
UPDATE
Community Services
Code Enforcement Division

2. Stated Purpose:
“The purpose .....is to establish a registration requirement for
owners of Rental Properties so that the City may
expeditiously identify and contact the Owner, if local, or
Owner’s local contact person to obtain tenant information in
the event of an emergency or when a disproportionate
number of city, state or federal law violations have occurred
on or in the property.”

3. History:
Ordinance originally adopted in March of 2009
• Managed by Planning and Development Services
• $15 registration fee with annual $15 renewal
Modified in June 2014
• Allowed for Staff review of leases
• Allowed for an administrative penalty for failure to comply
with the ordinance

4. History:
September 2015 - Relocated to Community Services
• Approximately 5300 properties registered at that time.
• Completed an analysis of registered properties and several city-wide
sweeps in an effort to identify non-complying rentals.
Modified in September - 2017
• Remove Annual renewal fee
• City Staff/Administratively labor and cost intensive
• Contentious with rental property owners/managers
• Expanded to include residential with 3-6 units

5. Information Required:
The information required to register the Rental Property is as
follows:
• Address of the Rental Property
• Owner and contact (email/phone) information for the owner
• Type of rental property such as single-family, duplex, etc.
• In the case of an absentee owner (out of town).
• Local contact with contact information
• The local contact cannot be someone who is on the lease.
• Local contact must reside within thirty (30) miles of
College Station City Hall.

6. Definition of Rental Property:
Rental Property means any single-family, townhome, duplex, tri-
plex, four-plex, five-plex, or six-plex dwelling unit that is not
owner-occupied, whether or not rent is charged. The term "rental
property" includes, but is not limited to, properties rented to
students, families, or any other persons; properties in which a
family member of the owner resides in the home but the owner
does not (regardless of whether additional persons also reside in
the home); properties used as vacation rentals or game-day
rentals; and properties where a property caretaker lives in the
home but the owner does not.

7. Program Management:
• Registration can be completed in person, by mail, by phone, or
online through eTRAKit and is maintained as a License
• Community Services does regular analysis of Appraisal District
data to determine properties that could be subject to the
ordinance but are not currently registered.
• Out of town ownership
• Recent change in ownership
• Utility Account not in name of property owner
• Advertising as “Available for Rent” on real estate websites
• No Homestead exemption

8. Program Management:
Challenges
• Educating property owners so that they understand the
purpose of program and ultimate end-use of the data
• With no annual renewal requirement, Rental
Registration Program is much more accepted
• Identifying “new” rental properties
• Identification of first-time investment property owners
and getting their properties registered

9. Program Management (cont’d):
Initial Registration
• Newly identified properties are contacted by regular mail,
and if available, phone and email, and given 10 days to
comply.
• Second notices are sent by certified mail
• If compliance is not attained within 14 days, a Summons
Request is submitted to the Legal department.
• FY 19 – 21 Summons
• FY 20 – 2 Summons

10. Program Management (cont’d):
Confirmation of Registered Property:
• TRAKit sends automated confirmation emails to registered
property owners 30 days in advance of the “renewal” date
asking if:
• Do you still own this property?
• Is it still being utilized as a rental?
• If so, no need to contact us, renewal will be automatic.
• Form of passive confirmation that they still own and still use
property as a rental. No Staff time required for renewals.

11. CMMA – Code Mobile Mapping Application
Primary Use of Data Collected from Program
Joins multiple systems/databases *LIVE*
• Rental Registration information
• Resident Information – current utility customer
• Ownership as per County Appraisal District (direct link)
• Other robust GIS “layers”
• Solid Waste (garbage, bulk, recycling, zoning, HOA’s,
city mowing areas, etc.)
• Code Officer Areas
• Displays properties in 30 day renewal period
• Displays open code violations

12. CITYWIDEMAP

13. FallSweep

14. Newly
Registered

15. Rental Registration Fee Analysis
Expense FY2020
Full Cost Allocation for RR (28%) $ 33,338.28
Salary & Office Space $ 62,454.50
Supplies, Phone, & Postage 2,400.00
Total Exp $ 98.265.78
Approximate # of New Reg Annually 1,000
Cost per Reg (As per FY2021_ $ 98.28

16. Benchmark and Other Cities
City Population Fee Annual
San Marcos 63,220 No Fee Annual
Plano 287,065 $11 (MF Only) Annual
Richardson 116,432 $55 Annual
Carrolton 135,834 $50 Annual
Sugarland 118,709 $93.50 Annual
Garland 238,418 $65 Annual
Dallas 1,331,000 $43 Annual
Fort Worth 874,401 $25 Annual
Hurst 38,976 $10 Annual
Allen 101,699 No Program
Frisco 177,020 No Program
Georgetown 71,004 No Program
McKinney 182,055 No Program
Pearland 122,078 No Program

17. Fiscal and Budgetary Policy Statement
USER-BASED FEES AND SERVICE CHARGES. For services associated
with a user fee or charge, the direct and indirect costs of that service will be
offset by a fee where possible. There will be a review of fees and charges no
less than once every three years to ensure that fees provide adequate
coverage of costs of services. User charges may be classified as “full cost
recovery,” “partial cost recovery I,” “partial cost recovery II” and “minimal
cost recovery,” based upon City Council policy.
a. Full fee support (80-100%) will be obtained from enterprise operations
such as utilities, solid waste service, landfill, cemetery and licenses and
permits.

18. Staff Recommendation
Increase fee to move towards full fee support
• $60.00 with approval of Updated Fee Resolution in March
(300% Increase – 61% Full Fee Support)
• $100.00 beginning 10/1/2021

19. Questions?
Direction?