DETROIT – As the city of Detroit continues digging into the books post bankruptcy, it's discovered even more money going down the drain.
So what does that mean to you?
First, it can be dangerous if you rent in the city.
Second, it's costing the city millions of dollars. The city is bleeding money because it can't inspect all its rental properties.
Let's quantify that. Approximately 70,000 homes out of about 100,0000 have not been inspected. The biggest obstacle is that there are not enough inspectors. But the city has a plan for that.
"We're 60,000-70,000 short of completing the numbers that need to be inspected, and that's needed to pay the rental registration fee, which is a lot of money," said Detroit City Councilman George Cushingberry.
How much money is that?
Between the inspection and registration fees, which can vary, Cushingberry said he thinks the city is losing out on anywhere from $3 million to $12 million a year.
"I'm not talking about the grandma that owns the house next door," he said. "There are these companies that own hundreds and literally thousands of rental units that are not paying the fee and are not having the inspections."
But the city thinks it can get things squared away with a three-year plan that starts with getting more inspectors.
"We have to start apprenticeships inside the Department of Building Safety and Engineering so we can bring more inspectors on," Cushingberry said. "We're going to probably wind up having to hire some outside contractors."
Plus, some property owners just let things fall apart, which can be a dangerous situation.
"In the cases where we have the slumlords who refuse to make the repairs, then if we don't have the people to come out and continue to make (the repairs), the most vulnerable people have to live in conditions that we don't want them to live in."
The plan is to get to half of all rentals and inspect them this year, and then the other half in the next two years. So in three years it'll get those much-needed millions back in the coffers.