Rental Registration and Inspection Program

The City of Urbana includes over 10,000 rental units, comprising almost two-thirds of our housing stock. After an extensive public review and hearing process, the City of Urbana adopted a Rental Registration and Inspection Program.

Purpose

The purposes of the program are to help ensure a safer rental housing stock, protect property values, and improve accountability of rental units. Residents throughout the City lobbied hard for such a program for many years. In fact, Urbana-Champaign has been the only city of any size in central Illinois that does not have such a program.

The program was developed with the assistance of the Mayor’s Neighborhood Safety Task Force and was based upon a careful review of similar programs in other communities. The Task Force includes representation by all of the City’s neighborhoods, as well as by local rental property owners, managers, and other experts.

Requirements

The program requires the annual registration and payment of a fee for all rental properties in the City. The fees are located in the Schedule of Fees.

Under the new program, the City has a goal of completing inspections of all rental properties within a three to five year cycle. The timing of inspection will depend upon a number of factors which are outlined in the Ordinance.

Effective Dates

The program was approved by the City Council on January 16, 2007, with an effective date of February 16, 2007. The established program year will extend from October 15th of each year thereafter in order to better accommodate the annual leasing calendar.

Check out the current list of Rental Inspection Grades.

NEW! RENTAL REGISTRATION IS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE!

FOR ONLINE REGISTRATION: The City of Urbana portal for online registration of your rental property can be accessed at the following link: https://www.citizenserve.com/urbanaillinois

For questions or additional information, please contact The Building Safety Division at 217-384-2443.