Director of Community Development Mindi Hurley provided an overview of registration and inspection policies during the first day of the Coppell City Council retreat Jan. 26.
The overview
Hurley said city policies require an annual rental inspection and an inspection whenever there is a change of tenant in long-term rentals—homes rented out for 31 days or more. During inspections, staff analyze the conditions of the residence and ensure that life safety items, such as smoke detectors, are functioning.
To register a home, a property owner must pay $50 for the annual registration and $40 per inspection.
During the school year, she said staff performs between five and 10 inspections weekly, but that number jumps to 20-30 over summer months. Hurley said there are several challenges staff faces when inspecting rental properties, including a resistance to registering or allowing an inspection of a property, owners who do not live near Coppell and declining property conditions as homes in the city age.
The details
Within Coppell, there are over 4,300 registered long-term and short-term rentals, which equates to about 29% of residences in the city, Hurley said.
One area that has seen growth is the number of single-family residences used for long-term rentals, which was 1,490 in 2023, according to Hurley’s presentation. The city also conducts a random inspection of around 10% of the 2,815 multifamily units in Coppell.
All nine short-term rental properties registered with the city are inspected annually, Hurley said.
What’s next?
Hurley said the city remains attractive for potential operators of rental properties.
“We believe Coppell is ripe for rental properties because it is a desirable community with good schools, and many business ventures realize what a ripe opportunity it is to have a rental property in Coppell,” Hurley said.
