Duluth, MN Rental Inspections: Tenant Complaint Process (2026)

Section 29A-33(a) of the Duluth Legislative Code puts a tenant complaint on equal footing with a routine licensing inspection: any premises licensed under Article II must be opened to the code official at any reasonable time for either kind of visit, and for a single-tenant license the code official can also demand records proving the unit stays within its occupancy limit. A complaint-driven inspection is not a dead end if the owner stonewalls: Section 29A-33(b) treats a licensee's failure to produce requested records the same as a violation found on-site, triggering written notice to the address the code official has on file.

That notice must identify every violation and set a correction deadline, with emergency repairs handled on an expedited basis under Article III and other repairs requiring the owner to tell the code official and the affected tenant the scheduled repair date within 14 calendar days. 2(a)(2) requires the owner or agent to retake the approved course within 90 days once the code official verifies one or more tenant complaints or code violations, even if the three-year certificate from the last course hasn't expired. Separately, Article I's general inspection rule in Section 29A-3(a)(2) lets the code official enter at any time an inspection may be requested by the owner or occupant, reinforcing that occupant-initiated inspection requests reach beyond just the licensing article.