Lansford Borough Council on Wednesday talked about reining in the number of rentals in town, even suggesting a moratorium to stop further blight.

Councilwoman Jennifer Staines asked if they could do anything to stop the number of rentals in the borough, as the numbers continue to grow as do maintenance problems.

Solicitor Robert Yurchak replied, “I don’t see how you can.”

Councilwoman Michele Bartek asked if they could do a moratorium on rentals, and Yurchak asked on what basis.

“You need to have a legitimate reason why you want to a moratorium,” he told her.

Bartek said that the reason is that 90% of the rentals in town aren’t being taken care of, and are causing the blight.

Council President Bruce Markovich said that the borough can’t say that or Yurchak said they can’t issue a blanket statement such as that.

Yurchak asked for a specific number of rentals and how many of them were blighted, and Bartek threw out some numbers of blighted properties saying that 970 out of more than a 1,100 were blighted.

Yurchak and others doubted the numbers.

“You just can’t make a blanket assertion without proof,” he told her. “And you can’t make it across the board against everybody based on a limited number of blighted properties.”

Bartek said many rentals have issues that can’t be seen from the outside of the building, and Staines said that the borough needs to do the rental inspections.

Staines pointed to damage inside rental units, either by tenants trashing residential rentals or due to a lack of maintenance by the owner, which leads to properties being condemned.

She is working on putting together a complete list of condemned properties, working from lists and files in the borough office, she said. In some cases, the condemnation notices may have been removed from the properties, she said.

Regular rental inspections should catch problems before these maintenance issues are too far gone, Staines said, adding that inspections should be done every time a tenant moves out.

“If we start doing that, we’re going to catch it before it becomes blight,” she said.

Markovich said that they’d have to charge a landlord for an inspection each time a tenant leaves.

“They just have to straighten up and fly right then,” Staines said.

Landlords might be more selective with who they chose as tenants, too, she said.

Last year, the borough hired ARRO Consulting to take over its rental inspections and licensing, and the firm has been working on rental licensing and fees, and then will begin inspections.

Applications for a residential rental license were due at the end of May.

Resident Tom Vadyak said Lansford should follow Coaldale’s lead and start revoking residential rental licenses.

Coaldale Borough will be sending out letters to those who haven’t paid their license fee July 1, and a second letter will going out July 15 to revoke their license, he said.

“You have the same solicitor. Talk to him,” Vadyak told council members. “You start evicting a couple of people, you’ll see these landlord wake up.

“There’s nothing you can do to stop them … from buying the properties,” he said. “But you can make them live up to the standards,” he said.

Yurchak said that there are plenty of remedies in the ordinance.

“It’s is an extraordinarily long and detailed ordinance,” he said.

Markovich asked if he meant Coaldale’s ordinance.

“No. Lansford’s ordinance is very detailed,” Yurchak replied. “Coaldale just made the effort to revoke the licenses if they don’t pay.”

Resident Joe Genits asked about reports from ARRO regarding the rental licenses and inspections, as there is nothing on council’s agenda referring to them.

Markovich said council does get a report from ARRO, and Genits asked questions regarding the number of inspections and notices that the firm sent out. Markovich said he did not read the report.