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When UC Berkeley student Brad Evans died last year because the smoke detector in his Oakland apartment failed to detect a fire – the second fire-related student death during that school year – Berkeley officials decided to take action. 

City Council quickly instituted the Rental Housing Safety Program, requiring landlords to do annual safety examinations and contract periodic furnace inspections. But after the inaugural year ended last month, landlords are questioning the program’s merit. 

“It’s quite redundant and costly,” said Robert Englund of the Berkeley Property Owners Association. Englund said the majority of Berkeley landlords already did their own inspections and provided tenants with safe accommodations before the city program. 

The program, says Englund, burdens good landlords because of a few bad ones when landlords are forced to pay various administrative costs. Though PG&E provides free furnace inspections, they can only do so many. Several landlords who are trying to meet the July 1 deadline for inspections ended up paying private contractors the typical $75 an hour service fee. 

Terry Piccolo of the city housing department said that although the city gave landlords a year to certify their furnaces, she understands their concern. 

She has issued extensions to landlords who have not yet performed the inspections. 

Faith Stein, a housing advocate with the Associated Students of the University of California, understood that some property owners might be frustrated by the new regulations, but said the program is the city’s best weapon to protect students and other renters from negligent landlords. 

Since 1990, nine Berkeley residents have died because of faulty safety devices at their homes. Several of the cases involved gas furnaces.  

The safety program costs the city about $500,000 annually, most of which goes to paying staff and running outreach programs. Various city and university grants have paid for the first year, said Piccolo, but the source of future funding is uncertain.  

Originally the housing department suggested assessing landlords a $10 fee per inspection to help pay program costs. City Council, however, rejected the plan. 

Landlords now fear the housing department might propose it again and they warn the extra fees would ultimately be passed on to tenants. 

Since the program went into effect last August, 10,000 units have been inspected, Picolo said, a number she says represents great success. 

Euglund, however, says the initial success is misleading. Very few code violations were discovered, he said, raising doubts that the costly new program is actually more effective than the previous one. 

He said the old system in which residents still had the right to ask for a city inspection worked just as well.  

Stein says the program protects the safety of renters and offers merits that cannot be quantified in dollars. 

“Student’s were increasingly cynical,” Stein said. “They thought ‘I’ll be here for four years and I’ll be taken advantage of and this is how the system works,’ ” she said. “Now the city is telling students ‘This is your home.’ ” 

The housing department will issue an annual review of the program in October, at which time future modifications and funding proposals will be discussed. 

Contact reporter at  

matt@berkeleydailyplanet.net