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GREENSBORO — Just a few months before a rental property ordinance will fully take effect, city officials are talking about scaling back the inspection part of the program.

City staff has been working with housing advocates and property owner groups to revise a 2003 ordinance that requires landlords to have special certificates of occupancy for all rental property by January 2009.

The city plans to keep the certificate requirement and a 45-day deadline for property owners to fix code violations.

But the staff might automatically reissue rental certificates if, at the end of their five-year expiration date, an apartment or house has not had code violations.

City Inspections Director Butch Simmons said the measures would help free up staff time and energy to pursue problem properties.

“This will make the process much easier,” he said Thursday.

City staff plans to meet with tenant advocates and property owners to discuss possible revisions. Any changes to the ordinance would be reviewed by an advisory board and must be approved by the City Council.

Greensboro launched the rental inspection program more than four years ago to clean up the city’s neighborhoods.

City leaders argued that it was important to inspect all rental properties — even those with no history of code violations — because some of the worst apartments or homes went unnoticed.

The city has inspected and certified more than 30,000 units. The certificates are good for five years.

Starting in January, landlords can be fined for renting without a certificate.

The fines, and the associated deadlines for cleaning up problem properties, will remain intact, Simmons said.

Properties that don’t clean up within 45 days can have their certificates revoked and will have to pay a fee to get it back.

The certificates and the fines are the essential parts of the ordinance, said Beth McKee-Huger, director of the Greensboro Housing Coalition.

“It will make even more difference in January and February when people start being prosecuted for not having a (rental unit certificate of occupancy),” she said.

“There really haven’t been teeth so far.”

City staff might decide not to reinspect some properties starting next year, when the first batch of rental unit certificates of occupancy begin to hit their five-year expiration dates.

That will put inspectors back into reactionary mode, responding to complaints instead of searching for code violations. But Simmons said tenants would be educated enough to complain.

“The tenants won’t put up with it,” he said.

The change may be a relief to some property owners, who have long argued that the inspections are a waste of taxpayers’ and businesses’ money.

“The big concern about the program are the costs to inspecting 90 percent of properties that don’t need inspections,” said Marlene Sanford, president of the Triad Real Estate Building and Industry Coalition.

Sanford said the city should clean up the ordinance and define a problem property, since even a good property could have one or two minor violations.

Contact Amanda Lehmert at 373-7075 or amanda.lehmert@news-record.com