Pontiac home where 3 children were allegedly abandoned by their mom wasn't properly registered, city says
With the city of Pontiac requiring all properties to be registered as either homesteads or rental properties, city leaders say the property on the 600 block of Lydia Lane, where three children were allegedly abandoned by their mother, wasn't on the list.
"The city requires that a rental property must be registered, and there are fines if that is being rented out and they aren't registered and getting inspected," said Mike McGuinness, Pontiac City Council President.
Filings indicate that the city's rental property registry didn't have a record of the home, with public listings showing the home as a 0% homestead, which means the owner wasn't using it as their primary residence.
McGuinness says that would mean the unit was being unlawfully rented out and as a result, wasn't subject to inspections.
With registered homes subject to review every three years, the hope is that this may have been caught sooner.
"There's a lot of different steps here that we want to make sure we can safeguard, to make sure that there are less vulnerabilities to the system for vulnerable children and vulnerable neighbors. So that way, this doesn't happen again," said McGuinness.
Real estate broker Annette Compo says one way to do that is by having the city do a thorough check of all of its registered properties and follow up with the ones that aren't up to date.
"Maybe that's one of the problems that the city of Pontiac needs to maybe look at and say, hey, maybe we should be auditing our homestead exemptions," said Compo.
Compo says this situation should push cities and municipalities in the area to reevaluate how they are educating landlords in how to properly rent out their properties.
"You need to be educated. You need to understand and do your due diligence as to what this responsibility is that you have. Just throwing a for rent sign up in your window is not enough," said Compo.
Pontiac City Council leaders say they plan to discuss the ordinances further at their upcoming meeting on March 4.