AMHERST — Safety or zoning violations have been uncovered in almost all of the 125 rental units examined during the first six months of Amherst’s more robust permitting and inspection program, according to Building Commissioner Rob Morra.
In the first update to the Town Council about the work that started last October, Morra said Monday that only 4% of the units inspected through the end of March had no violations, with 58 of the units, or 43%, having serious violations in need of immediate correction.
Serious violations can include electrical hazards, dangerous water temperatures from the faucets, faulty smoke or carbon monoxide detectors and broken or missing handrails on interior and exterior staircases.
More prevalent, though, have been what are considered minor violations. These can be loose, deteriorated or missing siding, doors not latching properly or other hardware issues affecting security, damaged or blocked dryer vents, abandoned oil tanks awaiting proper disposal, peeling paint, severely worn flooring and faulty appliances.
But Morra cautioned that what has been examined so far is a small sample size of the 1,323 properties registered with the town, containing 5,636 dwelling units.
“The 96% is higher than maybe what we would have liked, but it’s still a relatively small number of properties that we’ve inspected, so I’m not sure that’s what we’re going to see throughout the program, but it’s what we have so far,” Morra said.
Morra provided several photographs showing some of the problems, such as an open junction box with live wires, creating a dangerous electrical hazard, a faulty ground at a receptacle next to a water source that could lead to someone being shocked or electrocuted, a severely deteriorated handrail and detached steps pulling away from a building, a hole in a sewer pipe releasing sewer gas into the dwelling, a damp basement not properly dried after a water spill and asbestos insulation breaking apart around a pipe.
A lot of problems are minor, but important, Morra said, such as smoke detectors and other devices not testing properly.
A checklist was provided to each property owner about a month prior to inspections, so they would know what parts of the interior and exterior would be examined, as well as the need for their properties to comply with any special permits on file and town zoning.
Morra said inspectors are also getting details about the number of bedrooms and bathrooms and will provide assessors with any discrepancies from current property records.
When the Town Council revised the rental registration bylaw in 2024, all rental units were supposed to be inspected at least once every five years, replacing the complaint-driven system that depended on property owners and landlords to complete a self-certification checklist. At that time, there were 1,258 rental properties, containing 5,134 dwelling units, a declining number that Morra said may have shown a lack of compliance.
District 3 Councilor George Ryan was among those councilors who supported the initiative and what is now being found, he said, illustrates the importance in a town where about 60% of residents are renters.
“That would suggest to me what you are doing is really important and you’re discovering things on a fairly regular basis,” Ryan said.
“Having a program like this, I think, is essential for issues of both quality of life, and I think even more importantly for health and safety,” Ryan added.
Since Town Meeting voted for a permit system in 2013, rental properties have improved a lot, Morra said, with most fire escapes in good condition and trash no longer a problem.
District 4 Councilor Jennifer Taub appreciated that the system has worked, reflecting on concerns that Amherst would lose out on new housing developments with rental permitting.
The implementation has come despite threats of legal action from an organization representing local landlords.
“What we’ve learned so far is the program has been pretty well received, we haven’t gotten a lot of resistance to conducting the inspections and scheduling the inspections, which is great,” Morra said.
The new system is supposed to have two full-time inspectors, but only one inspector position has so far been filled, along with a program assistant. At full staffing, it would have a $440,213 annual budget, but because of limited staffing, and the town’s lead code enforcement officer recently retiring, the work likely won’t reach the goal of 2,500 units inspected over five years.
The program is funded through $326,600 in permit fees collected and $23,100 in inspection fees. The existing registration fee, $150 per year plus $100 per additional unit, up to $1,050, and $100 per unit for all owner-occupied rentals, covers the ongoing costs of the program and allows the town inspectors to continue to respond to complaints, as they have since its inception. Another $150 per unit inspection fee covers the new recurring costs.
Two-thirds of the $100,000 set aside annually for safe and healthy neighborhood initiatives in the strategic partnership with the University of Massachusetts is also being applied to the rental permitting program.
The data also shows that two of the scheduled inspections where violations occurred are related to occupancy violations, meaning there are more than four unreletated housemates.
Morra said there is a growing number of complaint responses, which inspectors from his office, as well as the fire and police departments, handle. Over 400 complaints came in during 2025, where inspectors looked for for violations of the state fire or building code.
