Mayor Boyd considers “rental business license” for landlords
By Bobby Bryant, Editor
editor@newsandpress.net
Should landlords in Darlington be required to have a “rental business license”?
Mayor Curtis Boyd brought up that idea for discussion June 7 at a meeting of Darlington City Council, but at this point there are no concrete plans for developing it into an ordinance that could be voted on, city officials say.
“If a person owns a multiple number of houses through town, or apartments or complexes of that nature,” and rents them out, Boyd said, “he does business in our town.”
The city’s codes-enforcement department can intervene if a tenant complains that a landlord is doing no maintenance at all on the property and creating hazardous conditions, officials said. It can cite the landlord for violations. But this idea would formalize rentals as a business.
“I’m just looking for a way to protect our citizens, protect our town, from people that are coming into our town and buying houses and complexes and stuff” and not taking proper care of them, Boyd said.
In other business last week, council heard from a resident concerned about “the gunfire around the city of Darlington.”
“It’s gotten a little out of hand, as far as I’m concerned,” resident William Jackson told council.
On April 2, he said, “there was a fair amount of gunfire.” A week later, on April 9, he heard more shots fired. The night before council’s meeting, he heard more gunfire, but was not certain this happened within the city limits. “This kind of escalating is really concerning. It’s a small town, and we’ve never had a glut of this kind of activity all the time.”
Jackson also said other types of crime seem to be increasing; he said that recently, he caught on video images of a man stealing a neighbor’s lawn mower. The thief in that case was caught quickly, he said.
“Things don’t seem to be heading in a safe direction for the citizens of Darlington,” he said.
