Summit Hill Zoning Officer Daniel Matika told borough council last night it’s time to find and cite landlords who ignore the zoning laws of the borough. He related there are a number of properties where landlords are allowing rental tenants to move into an apartment without the required building inspections. In many cases, he said, the apartments are not up to code, such as having no heat or they have safety violations.

Matika related a story of being in a place where a landlord of a property, not knowing who he was, told him he “didn’t care about the zoning officer, we have tenants moving in on July 5.”

“That’s probably not a good idea,” Matika told the landlord.

“Why? Who are you?” the landlord asked.

“I’m the zoning officer,” he replied.

“Ignorance of the law is no excuse,” said Councilman David Wargo. “We need to turn over these landlords to the police so they can issue citations.”

“That is the spirit of the ordinance we passed,” President Michael Kokinda added.

Matika also mentioned after a drive through town he found 11 properties with quality of life issues, such as broken steps, junk in the yards and overgrown grass.

“Most of them are habitual offenders,” he added.

Matika said owners of some other properties with such issues took care of the problems. He stressed citations will also be given to those property owners who do not take care of the problems.