Asheville has joined Durham and a handful of other municipalities across North Carolina in making it illegal for landlords to collect rent on a property the city has deemed unsafe.
The Asheville City County unanimously approved an amendment to the city’s housing code on Tuesday to give tenants more protection against landlords who don’t make critical repairs to rental units after receiving notices of violations from the city.
City ordinances list 18 criteria under which a rental unit can be ruled unsafe. The lack of hot water, a heating system or smoke detector are among the violations that would qualify a rental property as unsafe…