Columbus, IN Rental Inspections: Inspection Programs (2026)

Section 15.24.020 of the Columbus Municipal Code gives the chief code enforcement officer authority to enter, examine and survey all dwelling units, rooming units and premises in the City of Columbus, Indiana, at proper times and after a ten-day notice. The stated purpose is to determine the condition of dwellings and safeguard the health and safety of occupants and the general public. The duty to allow entry runs both ways. The owner, occupant or person in charge must give the officer access after due notice, and every occupant must give the owner, or the owner's agent or employee, access at all reasonable times to make the repairs or alterations needed to comply with the chapter. The section itself sets no fixed inspection cycle; it is an access and authority rule.

Inspections sit beside a registration program that the Common Council adopted in Ord. 2-2018. Under § 15.24.011, no owner of real estate inside the corporate boundaries may use it to erect or maintain a residential rental unit after May 1, 2018, without first registering each unit with the City. Registration repeats on an annual basis by the deadline listed in the notification, within thirty days of a change of ownership, or within thirty days of obtaining title, whichever comes earliest. Section 15.24.012 requires a complete and signed City of Columbus Residential Rental Registration application filed with the Department of Community Development, with a fee not to exceed the maximum allowed under I.C. § 36-1-20-5(c). That fee is imposed one time on initial registration and on change of ownership for each separate parcel.

The definition in § 15.24.010 matters for scope. A residential rental unit excludes travel trailers, recreational vehicles, transient hotel or motel occupancy, a single-family owner-occupied dwelling unit, group homes, federally subsidized and owned housing complexes, scattered site Section 8 units administered solely by the local housing authority, and transient multi-tenant student housing at the Columbus Airpark. Owners who live outside Bartholomew County or a contiguous county must name an agent under § 15.24.013. Registration records are kept by the Department of Community Development for administrative enforcement, fire safety and law enforcement purposes (§ 15.24.018), and owners must report contact changes in writing within thirty days (§ 15.24.016).

When an inspection turns up a problem affecting health or safety, § 15.24.030 requires a written notice with reasons and a fifteen-day compliance period.