Although a municipality may establish and enforce a registration program for rental units, the Indiana Legislature prohibits municipalities from imposing annual registration fees of more than $5. The registration fee imposed by a municipality covers all the rental units in the “rental unit community.” “Rental unit community” means one or more parcels of contiguous real property upon which are located one or more structures containing rental units if:
- The combined total of all rental units in all of the structures is five or more rental units, and;
- The rental units are not occupied solely by the owner or the owner’s family. (Ind. Code § 36-1-20-1.5.)
If a rental unit is not part of a rental unit community, a municipality may impose a registration fee for each separate parcel of real property on which a rental unit is located.
If ownership of either the apartment community or the land the community is built upon changes, the new owner may be required to pay a registration fee of $5 or less and provide updated registration information within 30 days of the property changing ownership. (Ind. Code § 36-1-20-5.)
The limitations discussed in this section do not apply to municipalities that created a rental registration program before July 1, 1984. (Ind. Code § 36-1-20-5.) Only two cities, Bloomington and West Lafayette, had rental inspection programs in place before the July 1984 cutoff date. Currently, Bloomington’s rental registration program charges no fees, while West Lafayette’s charges $5. Consequently, no city statewide charges more than $5 per registration. Owners and operators should determine if the cities their properties operate in require rental registrations, and if so, when registrations are due.