[Adopted 3-9-2009 by Ord. No. 2009-7]
In order to provide incentives to landlords to provide safe
and decent housing and to provide reasonable supervision and maintenance
of their properties by avoiding criminal liability in the Municipal
Court and such other tribunals that may have jurisdiction, the Borough
seeks to institute a deferred prosecution program which shall afford
landlords with an opportunity to remediate overcrowding and other
unsafe and unfit housing conditions within the Borough without undue
waste of enforcement and Court resources.
A.
General eligibility. Notwithstanding any other provision of the Code
of the Borough of Red Bank, the Code Enforcement Officer may elect
to offer a deferred prosecution agreement to any property owner charged,
or chargeable, with a violation of any Borough ordinance or property
maintenance code under the terms and conditions set forth herein.
Circumstances under which a deferred prosecution agreement will not
be offered include, but are not limited to, cases in which there is
evidence that a property owner knew, condoned, encouraged, assisted,
or conspired with another person to violate any building, fire, property
rental or property maintenance code; where imminent hazards to persons
or property exist pursuant to the Uniform Fire Code and/or unsafe
conditions exist pursuant to the Uniform Construction Code; where
a pattern of repeated or persistent violations exists; or a failure
to demonstrate reasonable efforts to inspect and maintain said property
in compliance with all applicable codes or standards. In the absence
of the foregoing negative criteria, eligibility for a deferred prosecution
agreement shall not be unreasonably denied.
B.
Appeal. Any person denied a deferred prosecution agreement by a Code
Enforcement Officer may appeal that denial to the Construction Official
within 15 days of the denial. The Construction Official's determination
shall be final and shall not be appealable.
C.
Property owner's obligations. Should the Borough choose to enter
into a deferred prosecution agreement, the property owner shall be
provided with written notice of all violations and shall sign an agreement
waiving all applicable statutes of limitations and further promising
to remediate all such violations within 10 days.
D.
Violation of a deferred prosecution agreement. Such written agreement
shall further provide that any failure to remediate any violations
covered by the deferred prosecution agreement shall result in the
imposition of a separate fine upon the property owner, as set forth
herein. A deferred prosecution agreement shall not constitute a waiver
on the Borough's part of any authority, powers or remedies available
to it, other than the promises made in the deferred prosecution agreement.
E.
Extension of time. A property owner may apply for no more than a
total of two additional ten-day extensions of the time to remediate
all violations upon a showing to the Construction Official and/or
the Fire Marshal of demonstrable efforts to remediate any violations
set forth in a deferred prosecution agreement.
F.
Self-reported violations. A property owner who self-reports any violation at any of his or her properties to the Borough shall have 45 days to remediate any violations. In the event a property owner fails to remediate all self-reported conditions within such forty-five-day period, he or she shall not be liable for the fine for failure to remediate set forth in § 523-28 of this article. A self-reporting property owner shall, however, remain liable for any unremediated violations after expiration of such forty-five-day period, together with such extensions of time that may be granted.
G.
Effect of remediation of violations. Upon inspection of the premises
and the submission of such other satisfactory proofs as may be necessary
to demonstrate that all violations listed in a deferred prosecution
agreement have been remediated, no subsequent penalty notices, complaints
or court proceedings shall be issued, served or maintained against
the property owner by the Borough for the specific transaction or
occurrence covered by that deferred prosecution agreement.
H.
No applicability to Uniform Construction Code and Uniform Fire Code.[1] Any time period for remediation under this article shall
be inapplicable to any notice of imminent hazard issued pursuant to
the Uniform Fire Code and/or any notice of unsafe structure issued
pursuant to the Uniform Construction Code.
To qualify for a deferred prosecution agreement, in addition to the general criteria set forth in § 523-26 of this article, a landlord must demonstrate that he or she has exercised reasonable supervision of the premises, which must include, at minimum:
A.
Maintenance of a written log evincing the date of inspections and
a description of the areas inspected on at least a quarterly basis
and signed and sworn to by the owner, or his or her agent, who conducted
the inspection;
B.
The existence of a written lease, or rider thereto, in both English
and Spanish, which must contain the following information or provisions:
(2)
That every tenant must be identified on the lease and registered
with the Borough;
(3)
That there may be no change in tenancy without amending the lease,
the tenant registration form filed with the Borough and the certificate
of occupancy, as applicable;
(4)
That somebody residing within the unit for more than 30 days, or
who pays any amount of rent to any person in order to reside therein,
shall be considered a tenant;
(5)
That no person shall interfere with or disable any fire protection
equipment;
(6)
That there shall be no occupancy of any attic or basement areas unless
they have been inspected and approved for occupancy; and
(7)
That any violation of any of the above shall constitute a lease violation
and a violation of the law which may subject a tenant to fines or
imprisonment.
C.
Prominent display within the dwelling space of a placard, which shall be supplied by the Borough at the time of the issuance of the certificate of occupancy, which placard shall bear the serial number of that certificate of occupancy, as well as all of the information set forth in Subsection B of this section in both English and Spanish;
E.
The Borough shall cooperate with any property owner who enters into
a deferred prosecution agreement by making its employees available
to provide truthful testimony upon reasonable notice in any legal
proceedings related to the violations covered by a deferred prosecution
agreement.
A.
Should the property owner fail to remediate the violations listed in the deferred prosecution agreement within the applicable time period, such violation shall be punishable by a fine as provided in Chapter 1, General Provisions, Article II, General Penalty, with the minimum penalty being $500 per week for every week that the violations remain unremediated. Such fine shall be separate from, and in addition to, any other violations that may have occurred at the premises.[1]
