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The city should automatically reissue rental unit certificates of occupancy when they expire, without reinspecting the apartment or home, a Greensboro board recommended Thursday.

The rental certificate advisory board asked that the certificates, which are meant to ensure that a rental meets standards, be renewed automatically. They asked that owners be asked, through a survey sent with tax bills, to verify that rental property is in good shape.

The change, if adopted by the City Council, would require inspectors to rely on complaints to find code violations — a process they said was ineffective in the past.

Housing advocate Willena Cannon, the one board member who questioned the recommendation, said the ordinance has improved Greensboro’s housing more than the previous system, which had no proactive inspections.

“What you are proposing, to me, is going back to that,” said Cannon, who works for the Greensboro Housing Coalition. “I don’t think we want to do that.”

Butch Simmons, the city engineering and inspections director, will ask the board to take the recommendation to the council, which must decide what will come of the ordinance.

The city has inspected more than 30,000 rentals since the intensive program started rooting out substandard housing five years ago.

Under the 2003 rental ordinance, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2009, landlords can be fined if they rent a property that does not have an inspection certificate.

Simmons asked the advisory board, which is appointed by the council and is made up of real estate industry representatives and community members, to help revise the ordinance.

He suggested the certificates should be automatically reissued if they reach their five-year expiration date without having any code violations.

The advisory board agreed Thursday to that recommendation. Some argued that the change would allow the inspection staff to devote more time to troubled housing.

“The city cannot go back every year and inspect all those buildings again. They don’t have the time or resources,” said Todd Rotruck, the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress representative on the board. “I don’t think they need to go around and look for any little nitpicky thing that is wrong with a house.”

But not everyone is convinced that automatic certification is a good idea. City staff, including Simmons, have said the complaint-driven inspections program let some problems go unnoticed.

“People are going to slide,” said Lori Loosemore, who manages the city rental unit inspectors. “They are going to wait for us to find them, period. That is what we did before.”

The issue will likely go before the council before the end of the year.

Councilwoman Goldie Wells said she would not be in favor of dropping the inspections.

“We will have some of those same violators who will just continue to violate,” she said.

Councilman Robbie Perkins said he would lean heavily on Simmons’ recommendations, but he does not want to take the heat off landlords.

Councilwoman Sandra Anderson Groat said it doesn’t make sense to inspect units with no violations.

“Everybody is being punished for the misbehavior of some landlords,” she said.

The rental advisory board also wants owners to receive a questionnaire with their tax bills, asking whether the property is a rental and whether it is up to code. The responses would allow the staff to create a database of rental units.

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