Zucal weighs in on Uhrichsville court loss
UHRICHSVILLE (WJER) (Dec. 13, 2024) – Mayor Jim Zucal continues to advocate for a citywide rental property registry following Tuesday’s court ruling that the current one is unconstitutional.
“It’s not uncommon in most cities. We want the land owners to be responsible for their properties so I, as mayor, support the concept,” he says. “I think it’s our goal as a city, the administration and city council, to bring that back to light, to study, and get it right. We do want to clean up the community. These monies fund a code enforcement official who works to clean up the community so we have responsible landlords.”
A rental property company sued the city in Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court over the 2020 ordinance requiring landlords to register annually and pay a per-unit fee. The case went to trial before Judge Elizabeth Thomakos, who sided with the company, declaring the fee an illegal tax not being used exclusively for the benefit of landlords.
Uhrichsville resident and rental property owner Kevin Barker thinks the city owes everyone who paid the fee a refund.
“Since these fees have been collected illegally for the past four years and the city has a record of all the fees paid by every landlord and their addresses, the city should do the fair, equitable, and right thing and refund all illegally collected fees to property owners.”
The judge halted collections and enforcement but felt ordering refunds for non-parties was beyond the scope of the case.
The city has 30 days to appeal the decision.