West Des Moines, IA Rental Property Rules: Repairs & Habitability (2026)
Key Facts
- Triggers
- No essential service, health/safety risk, no certificate
- Essential services listed
- Water, sewer, electricity, heat
- Effect
- Owner cannot collect rent during abatement
- Ends when
- Chief Building Official confirms remedy
- Notice method
- Email to owner, door posting for tenant
Summary
In the City of West Des Moines, the Building Official can order a landlord's rent abated, meaning the owner may not collect rent from the tenant, after issuing a notice of violation for failing to provide an essential service like water, sewer, electricity or heat, failing to fix a substantial health or safety risk, or renting without a current certificate.
C. Rent Abatement: The Building Official may order rent abated when it is determined that the owner has, after issuance of a notice of violation of this chapter: 1 Failed to provide an essential service (water, sewer, electricity, heat); or 2 Failed to remedy a condition that poses a substantial risk to the health or safety of the tenant; or 3 Rented a dwelling unit without a current rental certificate. Rent abatement means that the owner may not recover rent from the tenant. Rent shall be abated until the condition for which rent abatement was ordered has, in the judgment of the Chief Building Official, been remedied. The Building Official will forward the rent abatement order to the owner by email and to the tenant by posting on the entrance door to the dwelling unit.
Full Breakdown
City Code section 8-2A-16.C authorizes the Building Official to order rent abated once a notice of violation has been issued and the owner has failed to provide an essential service, defined in the section as water, sewer, electricity or heat; failed to remedy a condition posing a substantial risk to the health or safety of the tenant; or rented a dwelling unit without a current rental certificate. Rent abatement means exactly what it says: the owner may not recover rent from the tenant for the period covered by the abatement order.
The abatement stays in effect until the condition that triggered it has, in the judgment of the Chief Building Official, actually been remedied, not simply promised. Procedurally, the Building Official sends the rent abatement order to the owner by email and posts notice on the entrance door of the affected unit for the tenant, with follow-up documentation mailed to the owner at the address on file for the rental permit and to the tenant at the unit address, or posted on the door; a termination notice ending the abatement is delivered the same way.
This abatement remedy sits alongside, not instead of, the illegal-rental notice and Rent Abatement Notice process the City can use under subsection B when a rental certificate is missing or unrenewed, giving Development Services' Building Division both an enforcement track and a tenant-protection track for the same underlying property condition.
Violations & Fines
An owner who ignores a rent abatement order and continues to collect rent, or who fails to remedy the essential-service failure or health/safety risk that triggered the order, remains subject to the underlying municipal infraction penalties under Title 1, Chapter 4, Section 1 of up to $750.00 per violation, up to $1,000.00 for a repeat violation, and the rent abatement itself continues until the Chief Building Official finds the condition actually remedied.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a West Des Moines landlord still collect rent if the heat is broken?
How does a tenant find out about a rent abatement order in West Des Moines?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in West Des Moines
Compare West Des Moines to another location·View the Iowa rental property rules overview
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