Summit Hill zoning officer Bill Kirklosky says he has no idea how many rental units there are in the borough.

On Monday, he said the present ordinance calling for inspections of rental units is weak and difficult to enforce. He said there are situations where he made inspections, ordered some corrections to problems, and then never heard from the landlord regarding those corrections.As a result, he is not only seeking improvements to the compliance procedure but also wants the borough to crack down on landlords who fail to apply for a rental certificate."There really is no trigger to determine a property owner renting or leasing a property," he said, adding that there are property owners with rental properties who do not have rental certificates.Kirklosky said he would like to see a database established for rental properties."A lot of people are getting away with not ever complying with the ordinance," he said to the council.Councilman John O'Gurek suggested that Kirklosky put property improvement requests in writing. Kirklosky said presently such requests are done verbally with the property owner given adequate time to comply.Often inspections are done with tenants already living in a rental unit, he said. Such inspections are difficult because with furniture in place and boxes and other items in the dwelling, it is hard to check such things as electrical outlets.Borough secretary Kira Steber said sometimes the only way landlords become known are when tenants come to the borough hall and complain about repairs not being made.Chief of Police Joseph Fittos said property owners should be held accountable. He said when people move, they are required to get moving permits. But property owners are supposed to notify the borough so rental inspections can occur.Fittos said sometimes a renter will trash a rental unit before moving and new tenants are moved in before repairs are made, which is wrong."The ordinance is designed to protect the tenant and the landlord," Kirklosky said.He said there have been cases where individuals have lived in a rental unit and were smokers, so they disconnected the smoke detectors to stop them from going off. Only through inspections was it discovered that the smoke detectors had been disconnected.Fittos said, "I feel we have to make the property owner responsible to let us know when someone moves in or out of their property."Attorney Michael Greek, the borough's solicitor, said if landlords don't register their tenants with the borough, they can be cited and they can lose their rental licenses.