Sampling Procedure Guidelines

These are the guidelines for sampling apartment complex having 50 or more units for RUCO compliance.

As adopted by RUCO Board on March 1, 2007

1. No certificate of sample compliance for a multi-unit dwelling structure or apartment complex shall be issued on the basis of an inspection conducted pursuant to the standard sampling procedure unless the inspection is based on a valid sample pool and all units in the sample pool and all common areas in the structure or complex pass inspection within a 72-hour period. A certificate of sample compliance authorizing occupancy shall be issued for the multi-unit dwelling structure or apartment complex if all units in the sample pool and common areas pass inspection within a 72-hour period.

2. A valid sample pool includes at least twenty percent of all rental units in a multi-unit dwelling structure or an apartment complex on a single premises or campus having 50 or more individual rental units, and a valid sample set includes half the sample pool, at least one rental unit in each structure, and fifty percent of which must be leased at the time of inspection.

3. The owner of a multi-unit dwelling structure or an apartment complex on a single premises or campus or the owner’s agent must obtain signed permission, using a form approved by the city, from the tenants or occupants of any leased unit in the sample pool. The signed permission form shall be dated and will be valid for ninety days from the date it is signed.

4. While individual units inspected as part of the sample pool may pass inspection and be issued a rental unit certificate of occupancy, the multi-unit dwelling structure or apartment complex will not be issued a certificate of sample compliance if any single unit inspected as part of the sample pool is cited for one or more major violations or more than five minor violations.

5. A certificate of sample compliance will not be issued to a multi-dwelling unit structure or apartment complex if any common area is cited for a major violation or more than five minor violations. Minor violations in a common area that are corrected immediately (in less than 48 hours) will not count as disqualifying violations.

6. No multi-unit dwelling structure or apartment complex on a single premises or campus shall be inspected using the standard sampling procedure more than two times during a five-year period, except that a new owner of a previously inspected structure or complex, upon request, will be allowed two opportunities in a five-year period to have the structure or complex pass inspection using the sampling procedure. A new owner is a person or entity in which no principal of the prior owner, singly or in combination with other principals of the prior owner, owns or represents more than a forty percent interest in the new owner.

7. When a multi-unit dwelling structure or apartment complex on a single premises or campus has failed inspection two times within a five-year period using the standard sampling procedure, all individual rental units in the structure or complex must be physically inspected in order to be certified for occupancy, unless the new owner exception applies.